Brotoro's Making History Replica Missions

[Brotoro]

Brotoro's Making History Replica Missions

I have renamed this thread so that I can post multiple replica missions I flew using the new Making History KSP expansion. This first post has my Gemini/Agena rendezvous and docking mission. Look at later posts to see other missions that I may post. Comments about the missions or Making History DLC are welcome.

 

Gemini/Agena Rendezvous and Docking

My first build in the Making History DLC is complete: A Gemini/Agena rendezvous and docking mission.

The Agena was launched on my rendition of an Atlas-Agena. The "stage-and-a-half" Atlas first stage is not quite right...since the side engines drop off in two pieces::

The Agena reaches orbit with lots of fuel to spare.

A close-up view of the Agena. The Agena uses a T-45 engine clipped up inside of a empty Oscar tank and a new conical service module part to achieve that Agena rear-end look...along with a couple small RCS tanks. Dumping the forward fairing uncovers the docking port (stuck in a inverted cone transition part).

The Gemini-Titan II is made with the new 2-kerbal capsule and 1.875 meter parts. Alas, the Gemini's adapter section is therefore a cylinder (the 1.875m service module) instead of conical:

The Titan's second stage tank is only partially full to lower the liftoff weight of the rocket...and still gets to orbit with fuel to spare. I always like a little fuel to spare.

The Gemini was targeted into a slightly lower orbit than the Agena so that it could catch up to it after a few orbits:

My Gemini has the same RCS thruster arrangement as the real Gemini. And here are some views showing what's tucked away inside the service module (batteries, RCS tanks, liquid fuel tanks...since this Gemini uses a liquid fuel Spark engine to deorbit instead of the solid fuel retros the real Gemini used). The small tanks at the front of the Gemini (a couple empty Oscar Bs) are there to give it a more Gemini shape...and the parachute hides inside them as well.

Successful rendezvous and docking! Hey...I remember how to do this stuff after such a long time not playing KSP...

The Agena's engine was used to boost the Gemini into a high elliptical orbit...as is right and proper for an Agena to do. And then the Agena brought it back down to a low orbit (I only used the built-in heat shield of the capsule, so I didn't want to come in too hot). The Agena/Gemini stack was not stable under full thrust...but it's traditional to have attitude problems after your first successful Agena docking, so I guess that's OK (just ask Neil). I had to maneuver in short bursts or low thrust.

The service module engine provided the retro burn, then separated from the Gemini.

And the Gemini made a very non-Gemini recovery on land, returning Jeb and Bill safely to Kerbin:

Thanks for all the fun new parts!

Edited March 20, 2018 by Brotoro

[JedTech]

Awesome field report Brotoro! I've always appreciated seeing your missions. When I first started KSP in 2014 I learned a lot from your early Long Term Laythe missions.

[Kerbalstar]

56 minutes ago, JedTech said:

Awesome field report Brotoro! I've always appreciated seeing your missions. When I first started KSP in 2014 I learned a lot from your early Long Term Laythe missions.

Me too. 2015 though.

[Just Jim]

Nicely done!!! I look forward to more!!!  

[Cydonian Monk]

14 hours ago, Brotoro said:

Alas, the Gemini's adapter section is therefore a cylinder (the 1.875m service module) instead of conical:

That threw me at first as well. I can certainly understand why they made that design choice (we all know it’d be hard to fit two kerbals side-by-side in a size-1 capsule), and I’m ecstatic to finally have 1.875m parts in stock (including this capsule),  but it just doesn’t look very Gemini without the two different slopes at the top. And the 2.5m parts look too big for a Titan.

At least we can make a passable stock R-7 now, though one needs to use the old not-quite-correctly-textured 1.25m tanks at the base of Blok-A. In all I’m very pleased with the new parts (though I do wish we’d also received a 1.875m reaction wheel in the expansion, regardless of whether KSP uses such parts correctly).

 

Very nice mission. Have you considered making historical missions for the Mission Builder?

Edited March 14, 2018 by Cydonian Monk

[Brotoro]

Thanks, guys.

I first tried to make the Gemini using the conical white 1.875-to-2.5 meter adapter tank, which has a nice Gemini look to it, by emptying the tank and hiding stuff inside it. But I couldn't make a nice 2.5 meter Titan to go under it. The knock-off LR-87 (I haven't learned all the KSP names for the new engines) clearly belong on a 1.875 body (couldn't lift the 2.5 meter Titan), and I couldn't get a nice looking cluster of two engines that lifted the 2.5 meter rocket. And then I found the 1.875 meter service module with its gold-foil base, which was obviously meant to be used on the Gemini...so I gave in to the cylinder.

I haven't looked at how the Mission Builder works, so I can't say if it would appeal to me. And I still haven't figured out how to use all the new parts yet.

[Clipperride]

Great mission report.  Your Agena seems a lot more reliable than the original! 

I wonder if they will ever make the expansion pack available for the Enhanced Edition?  Seeing this, I really hope so.

[PTNLemay]

There's just something about the new 1.875m parts that's making me fall in love with it.  I know they were always an option via mods, but it's so nice having them come in the stock game.

It's a perfect middle ground of usefulness and compactness... so cozy.

[Brotoro]

Next... Apollo-Soyuz Test Project mission

[Brotoro]

Apollo-Soyuz Test Project Mission

For my next mission in Making History, I had to play with the cool Russian-inspired parts...so a recreation of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project seemed like a good mission.

It is somewhat sad that Making History has three identically-shaped Vostok & Voskhod capsules, but no Soyuz-shaped command pod. Voskhod was a slapped together series of two missions, and it gets TWO command pods...whereas the long-running Soyuz program gets NONE? Come on, Squad (or whatever you're called nowadays...I'll still call you 'Squad'). OK...so I adapted the Pomegranate (3 kerbal) command pod into a Soyuz.

Sending Soyuz

Below is my rendition of the Soyuz booster. Note the arrangement of the engines to match the real Soyuz booster. Five of KSP MH's RK-7 Kodiak engines, parallel staged. These engines do not have thrust vectoring...but, happily, Squad also gave us the RV-1 Cub vernier engine. The central core RK-7 gets four Cubs (clipped into the engine housing), and each booster gets two Cubs.

A close-up view of the bottom is shown below:

My Soyuz has a launch escape system constructed from a long I-beam, 16 Seprtrons (in two sets of 8), and a Communotron 88-88 just to make the tip pretty. The Abort action (triggered by the Backspace key) decouples the Soyuz from the booster and blows the fairing as it fires the escape motors. In real life, the whole shroud gets pulled away...but that would require another decoupler, so this was close enough. Action key 0 decouples the Command Capsule from the Orbital Module and the Service Module, and deploys the parachute. A test is shown here:

My Soyuz capsule incorporates the ability to jettison its heat shield and fire landing motors to soften the landing (Action key 9). The heat shield, like most things n KSP, seems to be made from high explosives, so it explodes when it hits the ground below the capsule...just to make life more exciting, I guess.

Because they are playing the part of the Soviets, Valentina and Valeri Kerman were launched from the far-north Woomerang launch site. They will launch first, because that's what Soviets do...go to space first. My Soyuz booster is very peppy, lifting off with excellent acceleration. But what would you expect from fire shooting out of 32 nozzles simultaneously?

And what would a Soyuz launch be without a Korolev Cross at staging? The central core has more fuel than the side boosters so that it will run longer than the boosters. Also, note the 'hammerhead' shape of the core (wider in the front), as is proper for an R-7-derived booster.

Action key 1 is used to blow the fairing and send away the launch escape tower at 40,000 meters (only 8 of the Sepratrons are used for this).

The upper stage of my Soyuz booster also uses an RK-7 and four Cubs. The rather aggressive motor usually explodes the interstage framework...but I guess one should expect damage to the booster when you use hot firing.

The upper stage also has good acceleration.

The KSP Pomegranate command pod has no reaction wheels, so the upper stage tumbled in between burns during my test flights. But firing at minimum thrust gave enough control to line up for the circularization burn at 100 km. I later added a small torque wheel hidden inside the command capsule (which can be enabled/disabled using Action 8). My upper stage still had about half a tank of fuel after inserting the Soyuz into orbit.

A press of the 2 key deploys the solar panels and antenna. My Soyuz has an arrangement of RCS thrusters similar to that on the real Soyuz. RCS thrusters on the rear conical section take care of pitch and yaw. The ring of thrusters on the separator below the capsule handle up/down, right/left, and backward translations. There are also four thrusters in that ring that control roll. Two RCS thrusters on the bottom of the service module handle forward translation...and there is a Spark motor in the center of the bottom for doing orbital maneuvers. Note that settings on all the thrusters are modified so that each thruster only handles the attitude or translational movement it is assigned to...which is important to keep all those thrusters spraying all sorts of RCS propellant around unnecessarily.

The body of the Service Module is made from the 1.875-meter service module part that I used on my Gemini, and it is stuffed with four Baguette fuel tanks and four Stratus-V Roundified RCS propellant tanks...so my Soyuz has a lot more delta-V and maneuvering capacity than the real Soyuz. The Command Module is constructed from a Pomegranate capsule and a T-18 Structural Tube  and a heat shield to approximate the real Soyuz capsule shape as well as I could. There is also a central girder buried inside that holds things in place. The Orbital Module in from is made from a Pomegranate capsule and a standard docking port.

 

Also Apollo!

Next up, the slower capitalist running dogs ready their Apollo Saturn IB, carrying Jeb, Bill, and Bob.

My Saturn IB first stage has a cluster of eight motors, arranged like the real Saturn IB. I needed to use the higher thrust T-30 Reliant motors to lift this bird, so there is no thrust vectoring...but the Saturn IB has eight fins, so those can handle the job. In order to resemble the real Saturn IB, the structure of my first stage has a spine of three FL-T800 tanks surrounded by eight stacks of three FL-T800 tanks (Von Braun's team built the Saturn I quickly by clustering smaller tanks in sizes they already had made to build a big launcher). The tanks of my model overlap slightly...but I'm fine with that since a lot of the space in the tanks is not used: Of these 27 tanks, only 16 contain propellants...the rest are there for looks...which sadly makes this beast woefully underpowered. You could eliminate the entire bottom tier of 9 tanks and have a lighter, stubby Saturn IB, if you didn't care how it looked.

May Apollo Saturn IB has a operating Launch Escape System... below you can see a abort-from-pad test:

Before the Apollo can launch, they must wait until the equatorial KSC launch site lines up under the inclined orbit of the Soyuz:

Below: Liftoff of the Saturn IB!

This beastie really lumbers off the pad and climbs slowly. You have to use a more vertical trajectory than normal to give the second stage some good loft (since you aren't going to give it lots of speed). My Rendition of the Saturn IB is not an efficient booster. I also had to head northeast to follow the direction of the Soyuz's orbit.

Below...Staging of my Saturn IB. The upper stage uses a RE-12 Skiff engine (KSP's version of the J-2 engine). The engine is mounted on an EP-37 Engine Plate, which makes the nice hollow tube that the engine sits in (and the tube separates with the first stage). Very nice, Squad.

The Skiff is also a rather anemic engine (when it comes to thrust), so the acceleration is also poor for this stage. The fuel tank of this stage in only half full to start with in order to save weight.  I jettisoned the escape tower with Action key 1 as soon as reasonable to save on weight, shown below.

I needed to keep the nose pointed above the direction of travel to prevent the rocket from turning over too quickly. My first stage boost was headed too far north, so I also needed to tack sideways back south to line up better with the orbit of the Soyuz. But the Skiff seems to use its fuel efficiently, so the ship managed to trundle all the way up to an 82 km orbit, using almost all of the upper stage's fuel.

Once in orbit, Jeb jettisoned the adapter section panels to reveal...not a Lunar Module, but a Docking Module!

A quick Transposition and Docking maneuver later, and the Apollo is ready to go meet Soyuz! The real Apollo/Soyuz mission needed the docking module because the docking port of the Apollo was incompatible with the docking port of the Soyuz, and because the two ships used different atmosphere compositions and pressures, so it also served as a airlock between the two ships. My rendition of the Docking Module is based around the Mk1 Crew Cabin.

My Apollo spacecraft uses the Mk1-3 Command Pod, the SM-25 Service Module (obvuously based on the Apollo SM...although it looks a bit long to me), and the RE-J10 Wolfhound engine (also an obvious Apollo knockoff). I wasn't able to figure out how to put parachutes in the small conical SM-6A service module part that looks like it's supposed to top off the command module (I couldn't get chutes to deploy from there...even when its cover was jettisoned)... so the front of my CM features a Probododyne HECS control pod (for unmanned use of the Apollo), three parachutes, and a Junior docking port. The built-in RCS ports on the CM were disabled so they didn't spew RCS propellant when maneuvering with the SM RCS quads.

What's inside the Service Module? Below is an internal view. An FL-T-400 (only half full to save weight), two Roundified RCS propellant tanks, and a fuel cell for power (on the base bulkhead...not visible here). Well...there are three fuel cells, just like a real Apollo...but only one was activated. A lunar version of the Apollo would contain more propellant (just as the case with real Apollos).

In the end, the orbit of the Apollo wasn't too far off from that of the Soyuz: just 2 degrees off in inclination. So the Apollo made a plane shift burn, then raised its apoapsis to increase its orbit time to adjust for a rendezvous with the Soyuz.

A few maneuvers later, and the Apollo slides to a halt near the Soyuz:

I liked using a docking camera mod...but I have no mods installed yet...so I relearned how to dock with the navball marks (which was easier than I remembered...maybe I don't need no stinking' docking cam).

Historic picture below!

We can take a peek inside to see Jeb and Valentina meeting up in the Docking Module. Hooray for international relations!

After a couple days of mutual experiments and photo ops, it was time for the ships to separate. The boys looked strangely amused. "Hey! We took all of your snacks!"

To return to Kerbin, the guys separated the Docking Module, waited for a nice ocean to line up, and fired the retro burn. As it turned out, I used up all the fuel onboard for this burn. That was cutting it kind of close...but the Apollo did all the work in my rendezvous and docking.

 The reentry was not particularly fiery, and the chutes worked fine.

A safe landing in the blue wet stuff!

Next it was the Soyuz's turn to land. The girls look strangely happy about it. "Those snacks they took? They were all cabbage pudding and borscht taffy! And we got all their Cit Cat candy bars! Hahahahaha!" The Orbital Module was separated first, and then the Spark was used for the retro burn.

The Service Module was dumped, and the reentry was much more fiery than the Apollo reentry.

The parachute worked fine, and as the capsule approached landing (at a rather fast 11 m/s), the heat shield was dropped and the landing engines fired (good old Action key 9...but remember to press Z for full throttle before pressing the action key). There are two 24-77 Twitch engines (thrust-limited to 60%) snuggled up inside the structural tube part of the capsule, and two R-4 Dumpling fuel tanks clipped most of the way into the capsule...but I don't mind that, because those tanks are almost empty...there's only a few seconds of propellant in them.

And the exploding heat shield makes it look like the landing motors are kicking up dust...so that's OK.

Photo op of our heroines after their successful mission!

Edited March 16, 2018 by Brotoro

[Just Jim]

Beautiful!!!

I love the idea of using the 2 seat passenger section for the docking adapter!

It has a very "Kerbal" touch to it, especially with the cutaway view!!!

Well done!!!!  

[Cydonian Monk]

Another fine mission. 

16 hours ago, Brotoro said:

They will launch first, because that's what Soviets do...go to space first.

♬ “Soyuz nerushimy respublik svobodnyx!...” ♬ <...record scratch...>

Quote

Note that settings on all the thrusters are modified so that each thruster only handles the attitude or translational movement it is assigned to...

One of the nicest changes ever made to KSP.... I’m not sure what release that tweakable was slipped in, but it solves lots of problems. 

16 hours ago, Brotoro said:

The Command Module is constructed from a Pomegranate capsule and a T-18 Structural Tube  and a heat shield to approximate the real Soyuz capsule shape

I had considered doing something similar, but decided in the end to just use the Pomegranate as the DM and the Mk1 lander can as the OM. Your ship looks more Soyuz-ish. What I ended up with has a serious Shenzhou vibe to it, which I’m ok with. 

16 hours ago, Brotoro said:

"Those snacks they took? They were all cabbage pudding and borscht taffy! And we got all their Cit Cat candy bars! Hahahahaha!"

<...record scratch...> ♬ “Slavsya otechestvo!....” ♬

 

Edited March 16, 2018 by Cydonian Monk

[Brotoro]

Huh... The Pea (2-kerbal) and Pomegranate (3-kerbal) capsules have the crew rotated 90 degrees from the regular orientation (which has the crew's heads facing south on the launch pad). The Onion (1-kerbal) capsule has the regular orientation. I thought something was weird when I was maneuvering my Soyuz spacecraft...what I thought was going to be dorsal/ventral was switched with port/starboard.

Why, Squad? I realize that Vostok had the pilot oriented with the hatch above his/her head (so the ejection seat could exit that way), and the two Voskhods had the hatch to the cosmonauts side...but why not orient the kerbals with their heads in the normal direction and have the hatch facing east in KSP? Or rotate the coordinate system direction for the Pea and Pomegranate so that the pilot's heads are 'up' if you insist on keeping the hatch direction south so you can reach it with the existing service structure...(oh, wait, we don't have an existing service structure to worry about)? 

Why do I care? Because it affects what direction the solar panels on my Soyuz should point and goofs with my mind when maneuvering.

Bah... Just give us a Soyuz capsule, Squad.

Do you think they will ever update the Making History expansion?

[Brotoro]

So I have been testing the SM-6A part some more (the small conical service module part that looks like it belongs on the top of the Apollo capsule). 

It is indeed true that you need to put the shroud jettison step for this part earlier in the staging sequence than the deployment steps for the parachutes inside of the shroud if you want the chutes to deploy. But, even when I arrange the shroud jettison in its own Action and trigger that before I use other Actions to deploy the parachutes, it still has told me that the chutes can't deploy because they are still stowed. But, if I then jettisoned the shroud from the staging sequence (after having already done it with an Action), the parachutes can deploy.

Also interesting: The Actions for the SM-6A has TWO 'jettison shroud' actions listed... one jettisons the left half of the shroud, and the other jettisons the right half. This is somewhat cool...but not particularly useful when the stuff inside is still stowed after jettisoning the shroud with an Action.

Also interesting: When you right click on the SM-6A part in the editor so you can temporarily vanish the shroud to manipulate the stuff inside and then turn the shroud back on, KSP changes the position of the part in your staging tree. This messed with me before I noticed it happening.

Edited March 18, 2018 by Brotoro

[Brotoro]

Munar Mission: Apollo Again!

The Making History expansion obviously went out of its way to provide parts for building an Apollo Saturn V... so that was my next project.

Note: These rockets that I am building for this series are constructed to look and act as close as possible to the original vehicles. Therefore, they include extraneous parts (such as empty tanks and attached doo-dads) just for visual effect, and extra parts (such as separation rockets) to match the operation of the original even though these parts aren't needed to fly the mission. 

Below is my Apollo Saturn V on the pad. The Making History expansion has a nice conical fuel tank painted to match the marking on the adapter between the second and third stages of the Saturn V...but I needed to put the third stage engine in that space, so I used a fairing instead. (But maybe the third stage engine could be clipped into the part without exploding during separation...I'm not sure.)

Of course I wanted a working Launch Escape System...and this is where I found the problem with the SM-6A small conical service module part that sits on the front of the Command Module: If you jettison the SM-6A's shroud using an Action key, the parachutes inside it will NOT deploy (they still claim to be stowed). So, after an abort (shown below) and the action key 0 to separate the escape tower, the space bar must be hammered repeatedly to get the shroud to eject and get the chutes out. 

So let's begin the mission! Below, the mighty Saturn V lifts off on the power of five KE-1 Mastodon engines (the Making History rendition of the Rocketdyne F-1 engine). My Saturn V lifts off slowly enough to be realistic, but considerably faster than the Saturn IB that I built for my Apollo-Soyuz mission. The KE-1s are nice looking engines, and the Kerbodyne Engine Cluster Adapter tank looks pretty good (although mine doesn't contain any propellant).

The Saturn V starts pitching downrange with its target in the sky. Who's on board? The three amigos: Jeb, Bill, and Bob. The only two tanks on my S-IC first stage that contain propellant are the S4-128 and the S4-256 (both full). The S4-64 that models the corrugated section of the airframe between the two full tanks is empty.

The first stage exhausted its fuel above 22 kilometers. Staging fired eight retro Sepratrons hidden in the fin fairings at the base of the first stage (where the real Saturn V had retro rockets), and fired four posigrade Sepratrons at the base of the second stage.

Sadly, I couldn't figure out how to make an interstage ring that would separate with the burning second stage and get dropped shortly afterward. But I did use one of the new Engine Plates that make a nice tubular structure to enclose the second stage engines (and separates with the first stage).

My rendition of the Saturn V S-II stage uses five of the RE-12 Skiff (to represent the five J-2 engines of the real Saturn). I have Action key 1 setup to separate and fire the escape tower at this point. The five RE-12 Skiffs gave sufficient thrust to push the rest of the stack toward orbit (some people have complained that these motors are underpowered, but they worked OK for me).

My second stage has lots of unnecessary parts to model the conical thrust structure of the original S-II stage. The airframe of my second stage is made of three S4-64 tanks -- the bottom one is full, the middle one is 90% full, and the top one is empty...just so the Second stage will burn out before reaching orbit.

At about 63 kilometers the second stage shut down and four Sepratron retro rockets first to slow the second stage. There are also two angled Sepratrons on the third stage to help separate the stages. (Unlike the real S-IVB third stage, I did not jettison my separation rockets to save weight after they burned out.)

Construction note: To place the four retro Sepratrons in the correct location on the fairing, I had to use I-beams to mount them as shown below in the VAB. This must be done AFTER making the fairing (because KSP won't allow you to make the fairing with objects in the way...which I think is annoying, Squad; how about you just close the fairing and let me worry about whether or not I want anything poking through it?).

The single RE-12 Skiff (pseudo J-2 engine) pushes the stack the rest of the way to orbit. It's nice that they give us different configurations for the RE-12: with a conical thrust structure as needed for a proper S-IVB, and nekkid for clustering on the S-II. The airframe of my S-IVB uses an S3-7200 tank (full) and an S3-3600 tank (empty...just there for the visual interest of the roll pattern...which only matches an early test model of the Saturn V, and not the flight models).

My S-IVB third stage put the payload into a 92.5 kilometer orbit with lots of fuel to spare.

The boys circled Kerbin for a while to check out the ship's systems (and to wait until the lighting conditions were better on the Mun, in my case).

Below we see the maneuver node plotted for the Trans-Munar Injection burn. The resulting transfer orbit does a figure-8 around the Mun and includes a free-return trajectory with a periapsis at Kerbin of 24.6 km so that the Apollo would return safely to Kerbin if the Apollo Service Module engine failed to ignite to capture the ship into Munar orbit (this was done on the actual Apollo flights for the early lunar missions...until NASA got more daring and wanted to reach more interesting landing sites, and then they needed trans-lunar trajectories that did not include free return).

My rendition of the S-IVB third stage includes two Orbital Maneuvering System pods (consisting of a Roundified RCS tank and four linear RCS engines) to maneuver the S-IVB. I also used the OMS pods to do a token ullage burn before re-igniting the third stage engine for the Trans Munar Injection burn. (The real S-IVB needed to perform an ullage burn to settle the liquid propellants to the rear of the tanks.) I have Action key 4 setup to toggle the Apollo's Service Module's RCS off during these maneuvers. The TMI burn took 2 minutes 45 seconds.

After the ship was safely on its way to the Mun, the adapter between the S-IVB and the Apollo spacecraft was jettisoned (in four panels, of course).

Then came the famous Transposition And Docking maneuver where the Apollo CM/SM moves off, turns around, and comes back to dock with the Munar Module (MM). Then the Munar Module is separated from the S-IVB and extracted by the CM/SM with RCS. (Note: I have Action key 3 setup to toggle the Munar Module's RCS thrusters on/off so they won't be firing during these maneuvers. I also had the monopropellant tank of the Munar Module disabled until separating for Munar descent just to make sure I wouldn't be wasting any of its precious supply of monopropellant.)

After the Apollo spacecraft was safely away, the S-IVB OMS system was used to target the discarded third stage for a munar impact. (This was done on later Apollo missions to give the seismographs that were left on the Moon by earlier missions something to detect. On earlier missions, the S-IVB was ejected into solar orbit. But I preferred the crash method here to cut down on space junk.)

OK...Let's take a closer look at my Apollo spacecraft! My Munar Module uses the Making History Munar Excursion Module (of course) and a Spark engine as the ascent stage. The descent stage has an octagonal shape with the landing legs mounted to short sides and longer sides in between (the same as the original Lunar Module). This version of my MM has eight R-4 Dumpling tanks, which is more than necessary (I wasn't able to complete the mission with only four Dumplings, and I could do it with six...but I put in eight just to have extra capability). 

Construction note: The images below show some detals about how I built my Munar Module. The Spark in the ascent stage is poked up inside so that it clicks to the node that does NOT result in the ugly round base shroud appearing on the MEM (you have to move your cursor around in there to find the right node...be patient). Below the ascent engine comes a TD-06 decoupler (again, it takes some effort to be sure this connects the the node on the bottom of the ascent stage Spark, and NOT onto the base node of the MEM that invokes Big Ugly Base Shroud. The Move tool is used to shift the decoupler downward to the location shown. The descent stage Spark is then added under the decoupler and shifted down a little.

A set of four Dumplings is then attached to the sides of the TD-06 decoupler at the 45-degree positions. Then a second set of four Dumplings is added in the Y and Z directions (that's the fore-aft/port-starboard directions -- on the Saturn V the X axis is vertical along the stack). Do NOT just add eight Dumplings at once...different things need to be attached to the two sets. The Y and Z axis dumplings get small SP-S06 structural panels attached (set to the pretty gold varient). More SP-S06 panels angled 45 degrees are attached, and even more SP-S06 panels are added in line with those panels, and then shifted to overlap them, making the longer sides of the descent stage body. Landing legs are placed on the short sides of the descent stage.

I used four more gold SP-S06 panels and four solar panels to wall off the top of the descent stage for visual appeal (and to provide a handy power source. The MM can do its mission with just its batteries, but extra power is handy if I'm messing around making extra orbits and whatnot to get nice photos. There is also a single solar panel on the back of the MEM for the same reason.)

I added another SP-S06 panel (white varient) to represent the "front porch" of the lunar module. I also added some ladder rungs attached to the front porch and a cubic octagonal strut so that I could have a nice ladder for pretty photos of the munar EVA. 

Inside the SM-25 Service Module are two stacks of LFO propellant tanks (more fuel than is needed), two Stratus-V monopropellant tanks (more than is needed), and the Apollo-traditional three fuel cells for electrical power (although I only activate one of them, and have it activated automatically by the LES tower jettison Action so that I don't forget to do it).

In the conical SM-6A service module on the top of the CM, there are two drogue chutes and three main chutes, as per Apollo specs. Again, be sure to make a separate staging step to jettison the SM-6A shroud BEFORE attempting to deploy the enclosed parachutes with later staging steps (or Actions), or the chutes will not deploy.

On the way to the Mun, the Apollo stack was oriented at right angles to the sunlight and rotated slowly to even out the solar heating. Well...at least this is the "barbecue mode" that the real Apollo spacecraft used.

Behind the Mun, the Apollo SM performed the munar orbit capture burn. Holy crap, that RE-J10 Wolfhound engine has massive thrust! The capture burn only took 15 seconds (this burn took 6 minutes for the real Apollo). I thing this motor is a bit unbalanced in thrust (and the Aerojet AJ10-137 was already a rather overpowered engine because it was originally envisioned to be used for lifting a heavy Apollo spacecraft from the surface of the Moon).

Oh...that marker in the picture above is the third stage on its death dive to munar surface impact.

Below, the Apollo in munar orbit. Jeb and Bill transferred over to the Munar Module to prepare for descent. 

Bob Kerman (the Michael Collins of our adventure) undocked the CM from the MM and moved away, preparing to stay in munar orbit while Jeb and Bill get to have all the fun. Then again, he has a better chance of getting home safely.

Time for the descent to the munar surface. My Munar Module has no reaction wheel, so attitude control is all done with RCS and engine vectoring...and with only the monopropellant in the M.E.M.'s internal tanks. It turns out to be enough monopropellant if used wisely...and that involves letting the MM drift along tumbling slowly much of the time.

I had to remember to toggle on the RCS thrusters (Action key 3) and enable the M.E.M.'s monopropellant flow (which I have disabled by default to prevent accidentally wasting precious propellant), then enable the descent engine, and then the ship was Go for descent. The burn to initiate munar descent is shown below.

The result of the deorbit burn shows the MM targeted into a nice maria.

When the MM dropped below 10 kilometers, the RCS was reactivated and the MM was put in the NASA-approved attitude (astronauts on their backs) and the landing burn was begun. The MM easily maintains pitch and roll (SAS set to Retrograde) using only the Spark's thrust vectoring (and the RCS was only needed to adjust Yaw...which NASA defines as rotation around the X axis pointing out the top of the Lunar Module).

The boys just rode the MM down the curve, keeping the SAS on retrograde the whole way (until the retrograde setting disengaged when the vertical velocity got too low just before landing). Happily, they weren't coming down in a boulder field or crater, and there were none of those annoying 1202 alarms to distract them. The descent stage tanks had about 18% of their fuel remaining after landing.

The image below shows the landing location.

Apollo landings are made when the sunlight is coming from behind the descending lander, but that doesn't make for good EVA pictures, so Jeb and Bill had some snacks and a long nap until the sunlight was coming from the west.

Alright, boys... Time for some boots on the munar regolith! Jebediah got to exit first, being the Commander and all. The kerbals were able to navigate the ladder more easily on the Mun than my practice trials on Kerbin (but it does involve a little jumping and gabbing at just the right times). On the right below is the view similar to the one I remember as a lad, of Neil climbing down the ladder...only the picture is not as crappy as the NASA video was.

"That's one small step for kerbal; one giant leap for kerbalkind. Oh, $#!@, I flubbed the line!"

Of course, the good pictures of a kerbal climbing down to the munar surface are of Bill "Buzz" Kerman, since Jeb was carrying the fancy camera and had the nice helmet light.

The flag was set up conveniently close-by the Munar Module, just to give it a good chance of falling over when the MM lifts off. "Here kerbals from Kerbin first set foot upon the Mun. We came in peace for all kerbalkind." See, the lines come out better when somebody writes them ahead of time.

Bill had to go back into the MM first. He never did take any good pictures of Jeb on the surface.

Time to head back to orbit! Let's see... Deactivate descent stage engine (check!); Make sure decoupler and ascent engine are on the same stage (check!); Set throttle to maximum (check!); Accidentally back into the ascent stage firing control circuit breaker and break it (check!); Fix the circuit breaker by poking in a felt tip pen (check!); Wait for the CM/SM to be passing overhead (check!); Press the space bar to decouple and fire ascent engine (chec...whoa! Liftoff!).

We're launching from an airless world (check!), so turn over and thrust horizontally quickly (check!).

The Munar Module actually had more than enough fuel left to reach munar orbit, and still had a sifficient amount of monopropellant, so Jeb performed the rendezvous maneuvers. Bob in the CM handled the final docking. Then Jeb and Bill transferred back to the CM with their surface samples and remaining snacks (no point leaving good snacks in munar orbit).

The Munar Module ascent stage was jettisoned, and Bob fired the Trans Kerbin Injection burn over the backside of the Mun. Sorry it's in the dark. Whoa! Again, the Wolfhound was surprisingly powerful, kicking the ship back toward Kerbin with a 12-second burn.

Homeward bound. You can picture some more barbecue mode on the way back.

Below: The Apollo spacecraft drops back toward Kerbin.

The Service Module is jettisoned shortly before atmospheric entry.

The reentry fire effects weren't very impressive, even at munar return speeds. Ummm...and what's with the reentry effects showing through the capsule? How does something like this not get noticed during testing??

After the flames abate, the SM-6A shroud is jettisoned (using the staging sequence)... and THEN the two drogue chutes were deployed. Yes, I know this capsule doesn't need drogue chutes to land safely, but the Apollo had two drogue chutes...so there they are. At around 10 km, the drogues were cut loose and the three main chutes were deployed (Three shall be the chutes you deploy, and the number of the chutes shall be three).

And the Apollo capsule settled gently into the ocean, as Apollo capsules are wont to do.

...and there's the capsule floating on TOP of the water. How did the flotation physics get messed up? Geez, I leave you guys along for a year and just look what you do with the program.

So let's instead end with the Munar Module descent stage, left sitting vigil on the munar surface. And it does this whether people believe in it or not.

 

Edited March 21, 2018 by Brotoro

[RealKerbal3x]

This is awesome, @Brotoro! Keep it up!!!!

And also:

#BringBackAldnerandNelemy

(yes, I have read your Longterm Laythe and Developing Duna threads. They’re awesome despite being from before I even knew what KSP was)

[Zeiss Ikon]

Magnificent.  I'd completely forgotten the tapered girder between the CM and Launch Escape engine.  Didn't the Apollo LES also pull away a windshield that had protected the (thin walled) CM from Max Q?  Not that there's any sensible way to model that with stock parts...

[Brotoro]

20 minutes ago, Zeiss Ikon said:

Magnificent.  I'd completely forgotten the tapered girder between the CM and Launch Escape engine.  Didn't the Apollo LES also pull away a windshield that had protected the (thin walled) CM from Max Q?  Not that there's any sensible way to model that with stock parts...

The Apollo  launch escape tower had a hard forward boost protective cover at its base that protected the front of the Command Module (sort of how the KSP LES has a cone at the bottom). There was also a soft boost protective cover (made of fiberglass panels)  that covered the lower section of the Apollo CM to protect it during boost (until the protective covers were carried away by the LES when its jettison motor was fired after the S-II stage was working well). This is why the CM looks white on the launch pad (that's the boost protective cover) and silver in space (that's the Kapton tape covering).

[SBKerman]

20 hours ago, Brotoro said:

Sadly, I couldn't figure out how to make an interstage ring that would separate with the burning second stage and get dropped shortly afterward. But I did use one of the new Engine Plates that make a nice tubular structure to enclose the second stage engines (and separates with the first stage).

I'm not sure if this is exactly what you were thinking of, but here's one way to make an interstage:

From top to bottom we have a fuel tank, an engine plate with an engine attached to it, a stack separator with staging disabled (it is attached to the bottom node of the engine plate), a decoupler, and finally another fuel tank. The decoupler jettisons the lower fuel tank (which would be part of the first stage of the rocket). The engine can then ignite. While the engine is burning, the built-in decoupler drops the shroud and separator. The separator is there just to have a hollow item at the bottom of the shroud. A structural tube would work just as well.

[Brotoro]

Yes! That is what I wanted. I thought I had tried that, and just got parts to explode...but I must have been doing something wrong (I am not wise in the ways of the engine plates yet).

Thank you!

Edited March 21, 2018 by Brotoro

[Brotoro]

Intelligent Interstaging!

Thanks to @SBKerman, my Saturn V now has a proper interstage between the S-IC and S-II stages.

This is the way a Saturn V does it, boys and girls:

First stage nears main engine cutoff...

After MECO, the solid retrograde rocket motors at the base of the S-IC first stage and the solid posigrade rocket motors on the interstage fire to separate the stages as the five J-2 motors of the S-II second stage fire up...

After the separation motors burnout, the interstage ring is jettisoned...

And the interstage ring falls away, getting toasted by the exhaust of the second stage engines...

You may well recall the famous slow-motion footage of the staging sequence from the Apollo 4 test flight (cameras located in ejectable pods captured the footage from the base of the S-II, then were ejected and recovered).

Thanks again, SBKerman!

Edited March 21, 2018 by Brotoro

[Barzon]

Could you release the craft files please - thanks!  

[Brotoro]

3 hours ago, Barzon Kerman said:

Could you release the craft files please - thanks!  

I'll do that by tomorrow.

[Barzon]

Thank you so much - I have no idea how to build an accurate Saturn V and Soyuz!  

[Brotoro]

Here are the craft files and some notes:

 

Saturn V (now with functioning interstage):

http://www.brotoro.com/ksp/Apollo_Saturn_V_with_interstage.craft

Notes: The MEM's monopropellant tank is disabled at start. You will need to right-click the M.E.M. and activate the monopropellant flow before descent to Mun.

Actions:

Abort (backspace)

0 - decouple capsule after abort (then press spacebar, spacebar, spacebar)

9 - deploy main chutes and cut drogue chutes

4 - toggle S.M. RCS thrusters

3 - toggle M.E.M. RCS thrusters

1 - decouple and jettison Launch Escape System

 

Soyuz:

http://www.brotoro.com/ksp/Soyuz.craft

Actions:

Abort (backspace)

0 - separate capsule and deploy chutes (for after abort)

9 - Drop heat shield and fire landing thrusters (make sure throttle is set to Z first)

8 - toggle internal reaction wheel inside the Descent Module

2 - extend solar panels and antenna

1 - jettison fairing and launch escape tower (for use during boost)

 

Saturn 1B:

http://www.brotoro.com/ksp/Apollo_Saturn_IB.craft

Notes: Low thrust to weight ratio. Don't turn over too soon or too much.

 

Gemini Titan II:

http://www.brotoro.com/ksp/Gemini_Titan_II.craft

 

Atlas Agena:

http://www.brotoro.com/ksp/Atlas_Agena.craft