Gaelan Conquest: 3.2x GPP Through The View Of Gael Rocketry United's CEO | Chapter 30 - Secret Project

[The Minmus Derp]

Cooleio!

[CobaltShock]

Chapter 24 - New Projects

Nova XII

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Year 8, Day 393

Nova XII is rolled out onto the launchpad

Mission: Land a gaelan in Iota's "Droops"

Crew: Philemy Gaelan

 

With the automated probes attached to these ships, we are sending our first solo engineer to the surface of Iota! In the upgraded Nova Heavy, the Nova Heavy-B!

Instead of 2 bulky side boosters, we have 4 smaller SRB's instead, along with a couple other tweaks. It's a bit cheaper, but we will still be losing 20,000 when this mission is all said and done, even if we complete the contracts. Still, not too shabby for an Iota mission.

To prevent a massive explosion, ullage motors were added onto the SRB's, which produced a spectacular view from the ground

Another addition to the "B" variant was a new Cryogenic engine just above the main stage. With this being the first functional flight, we were uncertain if it was gonna remain functional. 

The engine did it's job with no issues. We were far enough up that an abort would be fine if it did fail anyways.

Once in orbit the lander materials are revealed. An container filled with various things & experiments for Philemy to use on the surface. A new biome means new experiments & science to be gained.

Once again we have no missions planned until this ship reaches Iota (other than some R&D and tests in the VAB).

 

Year 8, Day 413

An awfully long time to be waiting for an SOI change for sure. Luckily Philemy will get back just in time to celebrate the new year with friends & family.

One of the things with these Nova Iota landings is that they tend to have excess fuel as insurance in case anything goes haywire. It is likely that for future Iota landers we will have better calculations and keep the orbiter weight lower as to save funds.

Running behind on schedule, Philemy gets into his EVA suit and transfers to the landing module.

Mainly mechanical input from here.

The ship coasts for about 80km until it is lined up to land near the south pole.

With a 0.4 ton container on it's side, the ship was just a tad unbalanced, with the throttle being limited to 50% for most of the landing.

It then became apparent that Raven may not have enough fuel to land. No way we're landing on no landing legs here. An abort was considered..

 

But the craft landed with all 3.65 units of liquid fuel left. Wayyyyyy too close for comfort.

Philemy then hops out and becomes the 3rd person to walk on Iota. 

The experimental "ground construction" process isn't too kind, as a solar panel that was to be attached to a probe ends up going haywire and taking out one of the main ship's solar panels 

Many of the workersin mission control starkly remember Philemy saying under his breath "that was impressive". Luckily it didn't otherwise damage the craft. 

With about 2 hours to kill, Philemy does more science, including a laser which will studied the surface of the droops.

This, along with 3kg of surface sample of the droops is really all we need. It certainly is a fascinating biome. Perhaps we need to send a rover to further investigate?

After the near 2 hours on the surface, Raven lifts off to return to orbit. Instead of staying in orbit, the craft will likely be de-orbited, as the Nova lander + survey program is coming to an end, when a likely new generation of Iota-bound spacecrafts will be developed.

To catch up with the Antares orbiter, the ship quickly tilts due South and then switching to SSE

The ships quickly get closer, and Philemy prepares to say a goodbye to the ship that almost didn't land!

Once docked, the semi-damaged lander ship is discared and is programmed to fly itself into the surface of Iota, and shortly the 2 landers will follow to prevent future space junk for Iota stations.

Before leaving Iota's low orbit for Gael, Philemy takes a final photo of Iota's surface.

 

 

Year 8, Day 422

Another routine Iota return coming up.

The ride gets a tad bumpy, but otherwise is once again uneventful.

And there goes a chapter of our early Nova Iota landings. The Nova program is certainly not dead, but the landers from a previous era likely are.

 

 

 

 

Sunrise Station Core

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Year 9, Day 20

Well, here we are with a new project! Some funds have been reserved for our very first station. Missions to Iota will likely go on, but for manned missions this is our main priority. It'll likely be at most a 4 module station capable of up to 7 crew at once. During the time of the Nova XII mission, new launch vehicles were developed. The Sunrise Station Core is flying on what will likely be our 2 man capsule launcher, albeit reconfigured, named the "Neon Launch Vehicle".

Funnily enough, the core was launched.. During a sunrise!

This launch vehicle is capable of taking ~10-15 tons to orbit, but a much larger launcher is also in the works.

Booster sep once again goes off without a hitch

And since I forgot to mention, the module is only ~5 tons, and so it will certainly have excess fuel once it reaches its target 130x130km orbit. Because of this, a probe core was set up to deorbit the last stage to prevent excess space junk.

Once in orbit, the core is revealed. Soon to be home to many other modules

Shortly after, the previous stage is de-orbited. Nothing much else happened as it crashed down in a remote area in Gael's great desert.

The station will likely have another module within the next year, but the next 100-200 days or so are targeted towards testing new launch vehicles, and our Ilios IV spacecrafts arrival to Niven quickly approaching.

 

 

PHOTOSAT-1

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Year 9, Day 36

A new development with our new launch vehicles is an ultra light launch vehicle. The Parvus Launch Vehicle is capable of transporting ~1 ton to orbit, with the launch vehicle only costing around 12,000. Our first payload does not have a paycheck attached to it, but is mainly directed towards 2 things. Testing our launch vehicle and new high resolution cameras.

Due to the weak engine thrust on the top stages, the craft takes a rather steep ascent before rolling over due south.

8 "Ant" engines get the small craft into a polar orbit.

The payload in question:

Shortly after, the cameras take 2 rather magnificent high resolution photos. Wonderful!

Surely in the near future we can strap this onto other probes to take high resolution photos of other moons and planets, with the only issue here being the transmission time.

Overall, a large success!

 

As previously mentioned, our next focuses will be more launch vehicles and Ilios IV's arrival. The ship arrives in 40 days, with no launches scheduled until then. Cheers

-Jimeno Gaelan

Edited July 6, 2018 by Steeeeve

[CobaltShock]

Chapter 25 - Interplanetary Arrivals

 

Ilios IV

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Year 9, Day 65

Our first probe to reach another planet has just arrived into Niven's SOI, and is waking up from it's temporary slumber

It has 2 modules, a relay satellite and a lander. The lander section was fairly out of the blue, as we weren't even sure if we could maintain a probe in Niven orbit. 

We also picked up a contract to test a heat shield in Niven's atmosphere, and so it ended up being a good idea to test a lander as well.

[Ditching excess weight]

 

Year 9, Day 69

The first aerobrake commenced. The heat shield test was not performed during this time

One orbit later..

The contract we accepted specified a re-entry speed of 4,100-4,500 m/s upon re-entry to test the shield, likely to see the effects on another atmosphere.

That remaining fuel got us up to the speed specified, and the test was performed.

And yes, some solar panels flew off, but this was intentional as they couldn't be retracted, and so we compensated by opening 4 for the journey to Niven, only to open the remaining 4 on the ground.

We were also fortunate enough to have a direct connection to the landing probe. 1 month later and we wouldn't be able to both land on the bright side and also keep an open connection.

..and a perfect touchdown at 2 m/s with the help of parachutes. A perfect landing all around the board.

While the lander died before it could send it's surface science, not only did we get science from the upper atmosphere, low space & high space above Niven, but we also completed many contracts. Ohh, the contracts. 450,000 from the heat shield test alone, along with additional funding from governing bodies due to the initial world firsts from exploring Niven. Seems like some of these people want to get in on this space stuff.

We also have additional analysis of Niven's atmosphere. Much thinner than Gael's, while also having the capability of parachute landings. Hmmm

 

 

 

 

Ilios III

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Year 9, Day 85

 

Much less interesting.. Our previously launched Ilios III probe is flying by Gratian.. We think. The trajectory is planned out and has been since way before we lost connection with the probe, so we know it's there.. we just don't know what it's doing.

Luckily, we do have a solution. Science collection was performed automatically without our input, and so we are hoping that once the craft nears to us, we can gain control to it once again.

-Jimeno Gaelan

 

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As you may have been able to tell, I replaced the skybox with a milky way skybox. I found that this one was much higher quality than the previous skybox, and looked good in the night & day sky. I would also like to mention I am implementing KS3P into the game for next chapters, as I wanted another sort of graphics boost to also compensate for the fact that scatterer seems to be broken on every body except Gael. I'm still tweaking settings, but It seems fine in the day and night, and you can in fact still see spacecrafts on the night sides of planets. 

 

Edited July 9, 2018 by Steeeeve

[The Minmus Derp]

Wooooooooooo! Moar chapters!!!!!

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Why has no one else posted here?

 

[CobaltShock]

Chapter 26 - The Cygnus Program

 

Cygnus I

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Year 9, Day 195

Cygnus I is rolled out onto the launchpad

Mission: dock cargo with Sunrise Station/Test a full 3 man capsule/Bring the 2nd tourist into space

Crew: Poody, Jade, and Elzer Gaelan

Launch Vehicle, N-1A (Neon Launch Vehicle)

Just a few days ago the Cygnus program was announced. Many asked if this spelled the end of the Nova program, to which we answered "no". The Nova program is still alive and well. being the most successful program of our history with manned space exploration, we want to keep it going until funds run dry. Currently we are designing a new launcher which can bring not only bring Gaelans to the surface/orbit of Iota, but turn a profit from nearly every mission as well. Until that spacecraft is designed, the Cygnus program is taking its place. The main goal of the Cygnus program is to lower the cost of spaceflight, and to further our permanent presence in Gael's orbit. Of course this relates to the construction & habitation of Sunrise Station.

This go around we are using the Neon launch vehicle for the 2nd time, along with being able to recover the side boosters for reuse with automatic parachutes attached to them. The crew had to wait until the station's orbit was matched up with Cygnus I on the ground, which wasn't until night.

The boosters separated, with boats on standby to recover them once they hit the water a couple kilometers offshore of the GRU Space Center.

Just a few minutes after predicted impact with the water, the boosters were recovered in fairly decent condition. A little soggy, but nothing we can't wash out and use for future Neon launch vehicles. 

The module we are putting on the station is a habitation module, one which can fit 4 occupants. We're expecting the potential max capacity at Sunrise Station being 10 people with full life support for ~100 days. We wouldn't want to try that though, as being able to recover all 10 near when life support was gonna run out wouldn't exactly be something we want to try or do.

The crew got near the station within half an orbit, and docked with no problem.

While they couldn't utilize the 4-man habitation module, the crew got to stay docked with the station for about 4 orbits. Jade even got a chance to EVA around the station.

Elzer got his fair share of the fun too, and certainly has plenty of stories to tell his friends & family once he's on the ground.

After those 4 orbits, the crew headed home.

On re-entry things became slightly dangerous.

At 70,000 meters, the ship wanted to flip not prograde, not retrograde, but in between. This was okay for lower down, as the ship wouldn't want to nosedive into the ground, but it made re-entry much more dangerous for the crew.

Luckily this didn't last too long, and the ship became stable once again. We are led to believe this was caused by the heat shield, the same type used for our previously tested 2 meter 2-man capsules, which is why testing for that capsule was discontinued. 

Back home waiting for recovery. Obviously some testing of the heatshield and capsule combo needs to be tested once more to ensure that never happens again, and god forbid it happens on an Iota return.

 

 

Ilios V

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Year 9, Day 201

Ilios V is rolled out onto the launchpad

Mission: Flyby/Orbit Tellumo & analyze its surface from orbit

Launch Vehicle: C-1A (Cobalt Launch Vehicle)

A new premier of a new launch vehicle. This one can bring ~10-15 tons to orbit, but its only taking about 9 tons now. This flight is mainly to test reusability of the 6 side boosters.

Gonna be a lengthier recovery effort of the 6 individual boosters. We only have 2 recovery ships for the time being.

Another thing about these new launch vehicles is to make sure we don't leave excess space junk in orbit, as it is becoming a bit of an issue nowadays. 

The vessel plots its flyby of Tellumo relatively shortly after it reaches orbit, with plenty of fuel to spare once it arrives at Tellumo. Tellumo is different from both Niven and Gratian since it is much more Gael like, and so eventually we will need to send a payload with many more atmospheric tools. At this moment in time all we know is that its a fairly larger version of Gael, and that it has a thicker atmosphere. This probe's job is not to analyze the atmosphere in question, and so we will have to send future atmospheric probes for that purpose.

It's entering Tellumo's SOI in ~350 days, and so we will keep you all posted for when it is arriving at Tellumo.

Future missions will be geared towards launching modules to Sunrise Station. There is about 2,300,000 in the bank, and so we don't have to worry about funds for some time. 

-Jimeno Gaelan

[CobaltShock]

Chapter 27 - Station Construction

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I am still messing around with the KS3P settings at the moment, so there will be some variability in between missions. 

 

Greenhouse Module

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Year 9, Day 231

Greenhouse Module is rolled out onto the launchpad

Mission: Dock a greenhouse with Sunrise Station

Launch Vehicle: C-1A

Another module to be added to Sunrise Station. This time we are somewhat contractually obliged to bring it to the station, as there is a  111,581 paycheck waiting for us once the first harvest is completed. This can also allow crews to live on the station for at least a year or even longer.

Oh, and these boosters are being reused from the Ilios V. We think we can reuse them once more for another C-1A flight.

The night recovery sucked, but after a while our 2 boats got around to finding them, with all but 1 in relatively good conditions.

The module shown has the supplies ready to make food in space, but of course we'd rather have a crew at the station to make everything goes normally.

Docking goes well, and we now have our 2nd module at Sunrise Station

To prevent space junk, the section which helped the greenhouse module was de-orbited. 

Miraculously..

Mission control regained control following what we were expecting to be a re-entry that would break up the fuel tank. But nope. We used the altitude to more or less do a suicide burn.

Fuel ran out a few meters off the ground, and yet we still got a signal, which meant it must've survived.

 

We'll attempt to send a team to recover the probe & fuel tank. We should be able to reuse the probe core for future missions. 

 

Life Support Module

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Year 9, Day 252

Life Support Module is rolled out onto the launchpad

Mission: Dock with sunrise station

Launch Vehicle: C-1A

A life support module to go with the greenhouse. Not much to it other than than it can sunstain a crew of 3 for 200 days without the need of a re-supply mission.

5 boosters were re-used for their last mission, with us not re-using any of the 6 this time. We will likely just scrap them for metal for future spacecrafts.

Docking went rather normally. The engine/tank on the left end were soon removed to make room for a docking port. So far this station is coming together!

 

 

 

Sunrise Station Solar Array

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Year 9, Day 278

Sunrise Statio...

Structual failure right on the pad... luckily we were able to recover the probe body and another few things, but the explosion was pretty massive. Our engineers tell us it'll take 60,000 to rebuild the pad

 

Attempt 2

Year 9, Day 301

Sunrise Station Solar Array (Mk II) is rolled out onto the launchpad

Launch Vehicle: N-1A

The successor to our first failed launch of this vehicle. Interestingly enough this mission still had some major issues

At about 9km up, the craft took a very sharp nosedive and was still rapidly spinning.

Somehow, some way we were able to regain control. A significant amount of fuel was lost, but after panicking, mission control finally regained control.

Sadly this rapid rotation tangled the parachute cords in the side boosters, and so they weren't able to be recovered and instead crashed offshore.

The ship pioneered on and got into orbit relatively close to Sunrise Station. 

The plan was to detach the two arrays since 1 they are to be on the side ports instead on the bottom & top ports. Just like these past 2 array launches, this didn't go to plan.

After detached, the first array lost power and became unresponsive as it started floating away

We had learned that the two arrays had their batteries drained with no solar panels out, instead of the battery bank in the solar array hub losing only a little bit of battery. To ensure that we wouldn't lose the 2nd array and have to launch a 3rd mission, two solar panels were deployed for the 2nd panel.

After this everything went relatively smoothly, and the hub docked followed by the solar array.

At this moment the top part of the array is obstructing the side docking port, and so it will surely need to be reconfigured. Also a light in the top docking port is currently broken, and so once we send our 1st official crew mission to the station, that will get taken care of. Just 1 module to go until the station is operational!

 

 

Cygnus II

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Year 9, Day 332

Cygnus II is rolled out onto the launchpad

Mission: Complete construction of Sunrise Station

Launch Vehicle: C-2A (Upgraded Cobalt Launch Vehicle)

Crew: Kirbald & Tourists Gusford, Gradas

Carrying a science module, we are sending our first official crew for a stay at the completed station. They will only stay for 2 days, but the next crewed stays will likely be months long.

Launch of this upgraded vehicle goes with no problems.

Once on the day side, the science module is revealed along with another habitation module. This means at full capacity the station could have 11 residents counting the crew capsule.

Shortly after the ship is reconfigured.

With only a bit of fuel, the rendezvous of the station was fairly tedious requiring 5 orbits.

Despite a large 10 ton vehicle, the docking was pretty swift with 12 RCS ports allowing for good Kirbald to maneuver the craft to his liking.

And now, the station is completed! Somewhat. We may need to send a 2nd solar array, but that's only if the station reaches maximum capacity.

Kirbald then proceeded to do the first official station EVA to repair the docking port. Not like we really needed the docking port for any time soon but it allowed for some work for Kirbald & allowed him to stretch his legs.

The crew then moved into the 4 man hitchhiker container and prepared the station for their 7 day stay.

 

Year 9, Day 340

The crew of 3 described the station as pretty roomy. Plenty of space to relax as their were no experiments for the crew to conduct, especially since 2 of them are tourists. That'll be likely for the next mission as we send a full crew of astronauts including a scientist.

After their 7 day stay on the station, it was time to say goodbye as they undocked.

This time around there were no rotational re-entry issues, so we're certain the previous issues were caused by the heat shield.

Landing in the highlands after the 2nd successful Cygnus mission. Currently the crew is waiting for their recovery. Don't worry, the craft is prepared just in case of a rogue bear attack.

 

 

 

-Jimeno Gaelan

 

 

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Note: the last 2 missions had the updated KS3P settings. Easier on the eyes all around for sure. Let me know what you think!

 

Edited July 12, 2018 by Steeeeve

[CobaltShock]

Chapter 28 - End Of The Decade

 

With us in the final stretch of year 9, I and the others who have worked in this program for quite some time are to reflect on what we've done in terms of space travel. Before then, we have 2 more important missions to undergo, including another manned launch to Sunrise Station.

 

Cygnus III

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Year 9, Day 390

Cygnus III is rolled out onto the launchpad

Mission: First long-duration stay at Sunrise Station/Experiments on the effects of long term micro-gravity

Launch Vehicle: 

Crew: Poody, Raging, Bobert Gaelan

N-1A

So far just about every launch that has docked with Sunrise Station has been during nighttime. To make sure we can get on the same inclination as Sunrise Station, most launches have been during the night, but as Gael rotates we are getting closer and closer to afternoon launches. It really hasn't affected us though.

Unlike the previous N-1A launches, there was no issues on the pad or in the air, so we WERE able to reuse the boosters as they safely touched down aided by automatic parachutes.

Once in a ~140x140km orbit, the crew has to wait about 3/4 of a full orbit to rendezvous with the station.

Over the 50 days that the station was left running (for the Greenhouse to remain operational), some issues did arise, but none severe. All it took was an EVA to fix the issues.

Here's the docking shown below. The glowing areas represent the "problem" areas that our simulation picks. Once on the day side, our flight engineer (Raging Gaelan) is to go out and repair them to relatively good condition.

Once on the day side, Raging went out and restored the problem areas, which included 2 docking ports and a habitation module that would remain unused for most of their stay.

Unlike the previous flight, the crew does have access to the entire station, including the science module.

The crew also has 2 spacious habitation modules for extra legroom or time on their own to get work done on the station.

We aren't sure how long they will stay, but soon enough within the next 100 days a resupply ship will be sent to remove waste water & waste, and also supply the ship with extra necessities, including newly developed chocolate pudding which could remain mess free in space. 

 

 

Artemis I

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Year 10, Day 13

Artemis I is rolled out onto the launchpad

Mission: Unmanned Flyby Of Thalia

Launch Vehicle: Artemis A1

Welcome to our first launch of the new decade! And no, the launch vehicle was not intentionally named after our new unmanned program. In fact, the opposite happened as the program was named later after the launch vehicle was developed. The only reason we're using it is because it is the perfect mix between a heavy and medium launch vehicle, able to ferry 25-30 tons to orbit with relative ease.

Due to the rather large side SRB's, no part of this craft is being reused.

Booster sep at 15,000 meters up

The ship continued its march to orbit with no problems whatsoever.

The upper stage consisted of 3 LV-T45 engines for the sake of efficiency as they worked their best in a vacuum.

Once in orbit the craft has a pretty simple maneuver towards Thalia only using a bit of the probes main tank of fuel

Unlike Ilios IV and its journey to Niven, we won't be able to get an orbit with Thalia as it takes too much fuel. Eventually we'll get around to using our heavy lifter to attempt to do so.

So this is what we have for now. A flyby of Thalia, and then off into interplanetary space once more. All the ship needs to do in the meantime is a course correction in about 300 days or so.

 

 

*Programming Note*

The "Decade In Review" blog entry will be out relatively shortly, and will detail the progress and setbacks we've had in the previous decade by each individual year and the programs that took place during that time.

 

-Jimeno Gaelan

[CobaltShock]

Decade In Review

Year 10, Day 20

With an incredible decade of space exploration now behind us, I wanted to reflect on what we've accomplished, our setbacks, and our breakthroughs. I'll go through by year on our biggest achievements or the major events that happened during these times.

 

Year 1

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Our first year of the space program was quite rough.With the start of the Free Eagle program, only a select few pilots got the start. The first one to be launched on a rocket was Galileo Gaelan on Free Eagle I & II, with the 1st mission consisting of a single solid rocket motor.

Sadly, the Free Eagle II failed as Galileo crashed into the East Gael Ocean, unable to control his fast descent. 

 

Following this, we went with unmanned spaceflight as we recovered from the loss of Galileo.

Insight II was the first ever spacecraft to get into an orbit of Gael.

Later near the end of year 1, our manned spacecrafts matured enough to launch Poody Gaelan into orbit.

After plenty of ups and downs, the first year of space flight ended on two high notes.

 

 

Year 2

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The early part of year 2 was spent developing spacecrafts and life support which could sustain crews for long durations. Because of this, the Solaris program was formed on the basis of what the Free Eagle program was.

Solaris I featured a 30 day stay in orbit of Gael, where Poody learned about the affects of micro gravity.

Later during the year, we sent our first probe out to Iota. The "Iota Expedition" or as we called it "Codename Blizzard" probe flew by Iota and took some pictures of the moon as well.

The probe was then recovered as we got great financial & economic boosts in the process.

 

Solaris II was launched on day 302 of year 2 with the goal of performing the first EVA in Gael orbit.

Kirbald performed this feat and continued the year 2 streak of world firsts.

 

The Carlin Iotian Orbiter was launched on day 353 of year 2 and once again made history to become the first probe to orbit Iota

In fact, this probe is still in operation today! Although it doesn't take up any of our time in mission control, it'll keep on pumping out data until its final solar panels fail.

Year 2 was a significant bounce back from the previous year, where in year 2 there were no critical launch failures.

 

Year 3

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In the early part of year 3, we had ambitions to land on Iota utilizing a probe. On relatively low tech, the Galileo Iotian lander performed this feat and another world first was set on Year 3, Day 76

 

Later in the year,  Solaris III brought the first scientist into orbit to study cloud layers and storms over the surface.

 

Year 4

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While Ilios II exited the Gael system in very late year 3, we only started receiving data in early year 4, including the confirmation that Ilios II had become the first probe to exit the Gael system

 

Several weeks later, Kirbald Gaelan became the first Gaelan to flyby Iota

In a solo spacecraft, he set out for a daring mission past Gael's radiation belts all on his lonesome.

His return was successful, proving that Gaelans could survive past low orbit of Gael.

 

Later on, the Zeta Cetian Orbiter became the first probe to flyby & orbit Ceti, sending back photos from a worlds away.

 

The last achievement of year 4 was sending 2 Gaelans into space in the same ship on Solaris VI, using a borrowed 2-man pod

 

Year 5

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Starting out the year, we were given an odd mission, recovering an astronaut from another space program. After 2 tries, we brought Thomrey Gaelan back to Gael as he was recruited into our program

 

Near day 200 of year 5, the Solaris program was scrapped in favor of the Nova program, one which would hopefully get Gaelans on the surface of Iota and perhaps even Ceti

The first crew of 2, Kirbald and Wilnda Gaelan spent several orbits in low Iotian orbit

Later, Nova II & III performed the first docking in the program's history

After all of these major milestones were checked off, it was time for an Iotian landing.

Utilizing the largest craft ever made at the time

Kirbald set foot on Iota while Thomrey waited in the orbital module

The crew returned home & made history with the first of many manned Iota landings to come.

 

 

Year 6

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With other insignificant probe launches in between, we decided to go for a rather dangerous mission, a Ceti flyby/orbit. Far beyond Gael's radiation belts the crew (Raging & Poody Gaelan) set multiple endurance records along the way

 

Later during that year, Tito became the first ever space tourist on Day 370 of Year 6

 

 

Year 7

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Right at the turn of the year, Nova VIII was launched with intentions to dock with the Nova IV lander to make a makeshift "station". 

 

A couple weeks later, we sent out our first probe to flyby another planet. It's goal was to flyby Gratian and beam back data, as we had extended our radio field much past Gael

 

A manned Iota lander launch had to be aborted due to the timing of a solar storm on Year 7, Day 194, which led us to rethink the Iota program as a whole after 400,000 was lost on the mission.

 

This setback led to us developing the "Nova Heavy". This piece of spacecraft engineering was launched 3 times in 2 variants (Nova Heavy A & B), with a 100% success percentage.

 

On Year 3, Day 335 Poody became the 2nd Gaelan to walk on Iota's surface.

 

 

Year 8

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After several probe launches, a beast of a spacecraft was revealed, likely to never fly again due to its sheer costs. A 1 kilotonne rocket that had an unnamed launch vehicle (primarily due to the fact that it would never, ever fly)

 

On day 204 of Year 8, Kirbald & Jade Gaelan walked on the surface of Ceti live to 75% of Gael's population

 

Ilios IV was launched on Day 252 of year 8, and had plans to reach Niven faster than Ilios III would reach Gratian. At this time we already knew that Ilios III likely had failures with its antennas, so that mission was a dud.

 

To close out the year, the final of the first "big 3" manned Iota landers was launched on Nova XII

 

 

Year 9

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Early in the year, Ilios IV arrived at Niven and set many firsts, such as being the first probe to not only flyby and orbit Niven, but to land as well

 

70 days later, Ilios III was said to have arrived at Gratian. We lost signal many months before it arrived, and we are hoping that once it loops around it'll get close enough to Gael to be able to transmit data

 

And currently, we are occupied in our largest project to date: Sunrise Station. Costing over 600,000 and weighing 40 tons, it is our current "home away from home" for our passengers on board the station, which can realistically reach up to 8 occupants

 

 

So, after this decade of many ups and downs, we have found ourselves in a stable part of our space history. Sitting at 2,500,000, we want to make sure that we don't blow it all on programs that don't work out. Currently our plans are to eventually go back to manned flights around Iota, and perhaps even tackle Ceti. We have several probes planned as well, with 2 already out in space waiting to arrive at both Tellumo and Thalia. Hopefully once we're back for another decade review in year 20 we will have made significant progress! Needless to say I'm excited at where our program will take us.

 

-Jimeno Gaelan

Edited July 16, 2018 by Steeeeve

[The Minmus Derp]

Yaaaaaaaaaas! Whooooo!

[CobaltShock]

Chapter 29 - Dreams Of Space Tourism

 

As of right now, we're waiting between 2 things. One of these being a re-supply mission of Sunrise Station (within the next 100 days or so), and a probe arrival of Ilios V to Tellumo. We have 2,500,000 in the bank, and so we decided to go for a proposed tourism program going towards cheap flights for tourists to Iota and perhaps Ceti in the future. For the time being this only involves sight seeing, but in the future it could be a whole lot more. I present to you: The Horizons Program

 

Horizons I

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Year 10, Day 45

Horizons I is rolled out onto the launchpad

Mission: Fly the first tourists around Iota

Launch Vehicle: Artemis A1

Crew: Kirbald, Richney, Newfen

The first manned Artemis 1A launch, this time aiming for Iota. We have Kirbald at the stick, with the goal of bringing the first tourists outside of Gael's SOI to around Iota. We're hoping to make a profit of 50,000 (150,000 flight cost, 200,000 payout)

No reusability on this mission was the boosters are way too large to recover

Everything is going well as the upper stage is activated

Kirbald set the ship for another pass of Gael as to save fuel because the top stage is not powerful whatsoever

 

Pass 2 just 4 hours later

 

Year 10, Day 63

17 days later.. the crew is entering Iota's SOI

They look out their windows and see Iota gradually getting larger in their view

At periapsis, the tourists took a bunch of photos and celebrated this achievement along with Kirbald

After their flyby, it's only a matter of days until they're greeted with Gael's atmosphere

 

Year 10, Day 71

Only 2 hours out now. Both Richney and Newfen are having a great time, and I'm sure they don't want this trip to be over just yet

Excess fuel is used to slow down the ship just in time for a Gael arrival

 

The main attraction of this mission might be over, but that doesn't mean the tourists can't get a little bit more of an experience. No mission is complete without harmless explosions!

Of course these explosions from the fuel tank don't do anything to the capsule as it reenters the atmosphere

26 days after liftoff, Richney, Newfen, and Kirbald are finally home. With Kirbald tagging along, this probably means he'll get a cut of that 50,000. Probably.

 

 

 

Cygnus IV

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Year 10, Day 73

Cygnus IV is rolled out onto the launchpad

Mission: Resupply Sunrise Station while turning a profit from tourism

Launch Vehicle: C-1B (Modified C-1A Launch Vehicle)

Crew: Claubur, Gican, Mitald (All tourists)

Our engineers proposed a plan to us alongside the Horizons program. "If we're spending money just to spend re-supply ships, why not try to turn a profit?", one of them said to me. I thought it was an excellent idea. Along with supplies brought to the station, a tourist group of 3 is to stay in a separate module for around 2 days

In efforts so save money, 2 side boosters are replacing 8 SRB's. Both can be recovered and reused for less cost on both missions. How can we say no to that?

Once in orbit the 15 ton cargo ship is revealed, with extra food, water, and containers to hold waste and waste water from the crew of 3's 100+ day stay

Since there are no pilots in the ship, the launch & docking are fully automated

Once docked we see the station at high capacity in our own mini town in space

The cargo ship is docked for 2 days until the tourist portion of the mission is up to maximize the astronaut's further stay on the station.

Sadly we think the greenhouse is a bit messed up, as it has been bouncing around from full production to no production at all. Around 80 days ago it was expected to be at full harvest in ~180 days, but right now we're looking at about the same time-frame. Hopefully we can get this issue solved.

 

Luckily the tourists don't have to worry about that, as all they have to do is not wreck their habitation module for their 2 day stay

 

Year 10, Day 75

The cargo portion undocks as it leaves the fully supplied station

The de-orbit burn is initiated as the tourists say goodbye to the station.

The ship enters the atmosphere quickly as it descends over mainland, letting the leftover supplies and picked up waste burn along with the fuel tank & engine

Everything goes smoothly once more and the crew safely lands a few hours from the GRU space center

4 for 4 so far with tourism missions. Hopefully this reliability comes with wealthier tourists wanting to help us make a profit? I know, I'm speaking with dollar signs for eyes, but seriously, this could be a big turning point in making space travel easier & cheaper

 

-Jimeno Gaelan

Edited July 19, 2018 by Steeeeve

[CobaltShock]

Chapter 30 - Secret Project

 

It has come to our attention that a mission has been planed & that a ship has been constructed under our noses. I'll give the details in a little bit

Project Buckeye

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Year 10, Day 104

"Project Buckeye" is rolled out onto the launchpad

Mission: Land in a previously unexplored portion of Iota (Iota's Droops)

Launch Vehicle: Artemis 1A

Crew: Kirbald Gaelan

 

So.. about that secret project. I was away working on expanding our space program when I had learned that a team of a few dozen or so engineers had come up with. Their logic was than an already built Artemis 1A was laying in a hanger, so they decided to construct an Iotian service module & a lander. An ambitious project for sure, but this specific Iotian lander was the cheapest we've ever had, coming in at 150,000. The reason they managed to sneak the funds to build such a thing was that 100,000 funds or so was left over from the station project (which will likely only run for a couple more years), and so the engineers used this to buy parts for the specific parts of the Iotian module. Once I came back, they did have to give me the green light for the project, and I agreed, as Kirbald is by far our most experienced pilot to date.

Still working on recovering the side boosters. That's not possible now, but we think we have a few ways of doing so.

Once in orbit, the ship is reconfigured to a near finished project for "Buckeye", the codename given to both modules.

 

Year 10, Day 110

Here the craft is at Iota. Here's where the difficult part of the mission comes.

The orbital maneuver is performed near periapsis, as the orange tank runs out.

The orbit put the ship a few degrees off from the Droops (our target biome), and so the lander uses a bit more fuel than expected to drop the lander into the Droops

After dropping to less than 5,000 meters it appeared as if the ship was coming in too fast.

Luckily as the ship crested over the mountains the TWR rose and the lander successfully lost high vertical speed.

Some other portions of this landing site are somewhat classified, and so for now we can only show you a photograph that Kirbald took of this rock near the spacecraft.

 

After exploring the landscape, it was time to return home.

The lander was not designed to change inclination as far as the lander was away from the orbiter, but there was no choice other than going with the launch.

The ship got into orbit just fine & ran out of fuel shortly after.

Fortunately monopropellant fuel was still near full (for the docking maneuver), and so that was used to near the lander to the service module

 

Either by skill or luck, Kirbald reunited with the mothership

Since we're cautious about the footprint of our space junk that we leave, the lander is to stay with the mothership until in Gael's atmosphere to produce spectacular fireworks, leaving Kirbald with a 2 room 0 bath 0 bedroom suite until he arrives back on Gael.

 

Year 10, Day 118

Certainly not a 5 star stay inside the capsule. Poor Kirbald. Of course this was a budget mission, and so we aren't taking anything out of Kirbald's paycheck for this, so it isn't like he's losing too much.

Spectacular re-entry

and after 14 days, Kirbald is back home after piloting one of the more ambitious projects our space program has ever had.

 

 

 

Ilios V

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In this timespan, Ilios V entered the SOI of Tellumo. We really don't have much to add as we're still analyzing the data, and so instead I and others have handpicked images taken from Ilios V

We will certainly have to send a mission to Tellumo's moon "Lili" sometime soon.

 

[Not a photo taken from Ilios V but we wanted to show this simulated photo]

 

 

-Jimeno Gaelan

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Sorry for the delay between posts. I am going away until August 10th, and so I won't be able to post until then, but I hope to get a post out shortly afterwards. Thanks to all who support this mission reports series 

 

[The Minmus Derp]

Yayyayayayayayayayyaay!