A.S.S.E.T. Corp. Mission Logs, Part 25: Duna/Ike Probe Mission Arrives

[Cashen]

Part 21: Mun Surface Base

So the first interplanetary mission is off to place ore scanners and relay satellites in orbit of Duna and Ike, but that mission will take around 250 days to arrive. The next interplanetary mission will be an almost identical hardware package to Eve and Gilly, but that won't be until after the Duna mission arrives. In the meantime, work continues closer to home. It's been hinted at in previous updates, but it's time to set up a permanent base on Mun. In terms of surface exploration, most of Minmus has been visited, but large areas of Mun, particularly its far side, remain un-visited, at least in terms of surface exploration.

The ore scanner at Mun has zeroed in on a good potential base location. The way the surface operations are planned, an equatorial location is unnecessary, as there will be the surface base only, no orbital station, and so this region, the large Northeast Basin, shows a particularly high concentration of ore. Ore will be used to provide the energy in-situ to power the exploration and science processing equipment. Like what Bill and Jeb did earler on Minmus, the first phase of the mission is exploration with a surface rover, but as was also hinted in an earlier update, that rover will be paired with the new Lander/Rover Transporter Vehicle or LRTV.

One of the heavier launches ASSET Corp. has done, with a stretched 5m stage and five Mastaton engines.

Here's the payload. Mounted directly atop the launch vehicle is the Mun LRTV and attached rover. Since modifications were made to the Minmus rover for the LRTV, the Minmus LRTV is being launched at the same time, mounted upside-down at the very top of the payload. The new hires, Gregford the Engineer, and Desbury the Scientist, are crewing the Mun LRTV to scout for a good location for the base.

The payload is broken up in orbit. The Minmus LRTV, unmanned, will proceed to Minmus for use by Bill and Bob there. Gregford and Desbury will fly their LRTV and rover to Mun.

And, naturally, the booster is recovered near the Aerospace Complex.

Here's a good look at the LRTV and Rover during the Mun transfer burn. The LRTV is powered by a pair of NTRs for high efficiency, mounted in pods on either side that straddle the rover and undercarriage. Electrical power for both vehicles is provided by fuel cells.

During launch, the LRTV is directly connected to the rover by this truss piece and a pair of stack separators and some struts. For actual use, however, the two connection bars, folded up here, must be lowered and locked into the sockets atop the rover. Then the truss piece must be discarded. Gregford performs an EVA soon after the completion of the transfer burn to reconfigure the pair of vehicles. Note the ladder piece specifically there to make this task easier. The truss of cubic octagonal struts is mounted on a hydraulic cylinder that can raise and lower the rover for deployment.

A short while later and the lander and rover are properly coupled together, and the truss piece can be discarded.

After the coast to Mun, the insertion burn is executed. This burn has a significant anti-normal component, which will arc the orbit first down into the southern hemisphere, and then back up the opposite side of Mun for landing in the northern hemisphere.

The insertion and plane change took place at Mun's retrograde side. After swinging around counter-clockwise and up to the northern hemisphere, a de-orbit burn is plotted to carry the craft over the Northeast Basin.

Gragford and Desbury begin their landing approach, with the landing struts folded down.

Touchdown is successful!

Rover deployment works exactly as intended. Note the slightly lowered undercarriage under the rover. The initial surface scan for ore came back at 14.68%! Much higher than the average for Mun, and similar to the spot on Minmus where mining was set up. Basically, good enough that Gregford and Desbury radio back to Kerbin and inform ASSET that this is an excellent spot to set down the base. A note about the LRTV. The design specification for delta-V was such that it should be able to launch, reach orbit, and land twice on a single load of fuel while carrying the rover. The premise here is that it needs to be able to reach any point on Mun's surface from the location of the base, and then return to base afterwards. In actual fact, it will operate on a sequence of suborbital hops, and probably not actually reach orbit, but that was the design case. As such, fully loaded and carrying the rover, it can attain around 2,500 m/s of delta-v. 

In the meantime, the pair drive some distance away from the lander to do some science. This is a previously unexplored area of Mun, and so all reports are taken, all science instruments run, and all samples collected. Here they use the rover's robotic arm to examine a Mun rock.

The rest of the hardware was all ready to go, it just needed a spot to be aimed at. It includes the surface base itself, and a tanker vehicle to carry fuel between the surface base (which is equipped with a scaled-down mining operation built-in) and the LRTV to refuel it between missions. Here we see the surface base being launched.

A look at the base and transfer stage. The design is similar to the Minmus base, but it has integrated ore drilling and processing (and radiators, naturally) and is fully powered by fuel cells instead of solar panels.

A much smaller launch is required for the tanker vehicle. While not shown, it goes without saying that all of these first stage launchers are recovered afterwards.

A better look at the tanker vehicle. It's been optimized to work with Mun's LRTV, containing enough fuel to fully resupply it and the rover between each mission. Unlike the big Minmus tanker, this one has an enclosed cab for the crew.

The base arrives first and begins its descent.

The transfer stage is used for part of the landing. By the time it's discarded, the base is falling straight down, and will use two pairs of Twitch engines to land with. The throttle limiters have been adjusted to account for the offset center of mass, but upward facing linear RCS thrusters are included at each end to keep the base oriented properly anyway.

The base touches down a little under a kilometer away from where the LRTV is.

Gregford and Desbury drive over to the base and fire it up. All systems function as they should! Gregford begins operating the mining and conversion equipment, while Desbury begins processing all their newly acquired data and samples in the Mobile Processing Lab.

A short while later, the tanker arrives. This uses a similar landing technique, using the transfer stage for the initial de-orbit and descent, before using some Twitch engines to land wheels down, and some linear RCS ports to help with attitude control.

And that's it! A permanent surface base to conduct Mun research! See Minmus in the sky in the background?

Their LRTV arrives several days later, and executed a pinpoint automated landing. This is almost identical in design to the lander on Mun, although it carries about half the amount of liquid fuel, since the delta-V requirements are so much less for Minmus. In the next update, we'll see what these vehicles can really do.

Financial Statement

Item	Amount
Starting Funds	$5,473,192
Hardware Costs	-$659,720
Contract Completion Awards	$308,016
Hardware Recovery Reimbursement	$302,130
World First Bonuses	$37,440
Final Funds	$5,461,058

 

Edited October 5, 2019 by Cashen

[Cashen]

Part 22: We Need More Kerbals

Having established permanent surface instrallations at both moons, equipped for further exploration and scientific research, ASSET Corp. has been listening to feedback from the deployed scientists and engineers, and one piece of feedback is loud and clear. Two Kerbals per base is not enough. In particular, the Mun base landed in a previously unexplored region of Mun, and so surface samples and instrumentation results collected just in the vicinity of the base has given it's resident scientist, Desburry Kerman, lots of work. He has communicated back to ASSET HQ that a second scientist would greatly improve the speed at which research is done, and ASSET management agreed. The base designs are both capable of at least 4 Kerbals, and so doubling the staffing from 2 to 4, with a second Engineer/Scientist pair, would allow for accelerated research. It would also mean one pair could go out and explore and gather new experiments without having to leave the base unattended. So ASSET Corp. is proud to announce the hiring of five new Kerbals:

• Newfry Kerman, Engineer
• Dumal Kerman, Engineer
• Geofbro Kerman, Scientist
• Alddock Kerman, Scientist
• Karfurt Kerman, Scientist

Two scientists and engineers will be assigned to the Moon Bases and the third scientist will be retained on Kerbin, as some Kerbin-based science and flight testing is expected in the near future (we haven't heard much from aircraft development since the ARA 2 accident that nearly killed Pholo, but that will soon change). The inexperienced Kerbals have to go through a standard training program which includes Kerbin orbital flight and participating in landings on both moons, before they're considered qualified for deployment. Using seats on the tourist craft is a great way to do this. So, today's mission consists of the following steps:

1. Launch the Space Liner, piloted by Pholo, and carrying Newfry, Dumal, Geofbro and Alddock, and a full load of tourists to fill the remaining seats.
2. Rendezvous with the Orbital Spaceport and transfer the passengers over to Moon Liner. Newvey Kerman, currently assigned to the station, will join them at this point.
3. Fly to Minmus and land near the base there. Newvey Kerman, who was resuced from Mun, will then be considered qualified, and will be deployed as the second engineer there. The second scientist will have to come later.
4. Refuel the Moon Liner and depart for Mun.
5. Land near the Mun base. Since two landings is needed for qualification, Gregford and Geofbro will be qualified to be deployed there immediately.
6. Refuel again and return to Kerbin with Dumal and Alddock. At this point, both will also be qualified. Alddock will be deployed to Minmus on the next flight and Dumal will take over operation of the orbital station.

Let's go!

Flying the Space Liner spaceplane has become almost routine at this point, but it is still something of an experimental craft, and modifications based on pilot feedback are still a thing. In particular, Pholo has complained that the Terrier Orbital engines, while efficient, are very weak, necessitating the use of the RAPIER engines for some of the higher energy burns, like the final rendezvous with the station. So some changes were made for this flight, as a test. This may be the configuration used going forward or maybe not.

Replacing the Terriers are a pair of T-1 "Dart" Aerospike engines. These add 1 ton to the total spacecraft mass and are very slightly less efficient in space but provide three times the vacuum thrust. Reviews during the flight are very positive.

Pholo remains at the station, and actually so does Valentina, to free up an extra seat for the new staff members. In total, five ASSET Kerbonauts and thirteen tourists will make the round trip to both moons. Once again, it can't be overstated how useful the tourism infrastructure is for ASSET moving its crews around.

The design of Moon Liner is perfect for these sorts of missions too. Being composed of four Hitchhiker modules gives the inhabitants lots of room to move around. It's like a flying space hotel compared to the more cramped spaceplane. Several days later, they arrive at Minmus.

While the ore extraction and transport setup is meant to provide fuel for Moon Liner in Kerbin orbit, re-fueling in-situ is a viable strategy as well. It can't replace using fuel in Kerbin orbit (Moon Liner needs to depart Kerbin with a full load) but it can reduce the number of trips made moving ore around at least.

Newvey Kerman, having completed his training, is dropped off to begin work as the second engineer at Minmus. Here he and Bob chat while Bill is busy at the controls of the tanker vehicle refueling Moon Liner. Alddock is planned to be the second scientist here, but he has to visit Mun as well to be considered qualified (basically, I want everyone at level 2) so he will have to return here on a future flight. Newvey being qualified right away is why he was selected - recall he'd already visited Mun, having been rescued from there. The tourists, meanwhile, get to enjoy the fantastic views out their windows.

After a stay long enough to satisfy the needs of the tourists, and with a full load of propellant, Moon Liner takes off for Mun. In a brief diversion from this mission, we'll now follow Bill and Bob on a short little Minmus adventure.

While Newvey settles in at the controls of the ore miner, Bill and Bob go about re-fueling the LRTV vehicle and preparing to attach the science rover to it. As mentioned in a previous update, Minmus never got the Ionograph instrument, it having been developed (unlocked) after that mission. A contract was accepted to get ion data from Minmus and the science rover was sent here with the ionograph and a solar panel in its storage compartment, but the Minmus surface science is a quarter of the way around the moon, too far to just drive there in a reasonable amount of time. So Bill and Bob are going to fly over to Greater Flats to deploy it.

With the rover carried underneath, Bill and Bob take off on the LRTV. This will be the first proper test of this hardware in this configuration on the surface of a moon.

It's sunset at Greater Flats when they arrive. They'll have to deploy the ionograph in the dark.

Attachment, take-off, landing and deployment with the rover goes fairly smoothly. From a gameplay perspective, it has to be in docked mode with one of the KAS connectors. If in undocked mode, the connectors flex and cause all kinds of problems. If both are in docked mode, for some reason X Science doesn't show the rover's science instruments as available. So one docked and one undocked is the way to go. There is still some flex and movement of the rover in flight, but not enough to be an issue. Overall I'm very happy with the design. Craft design and engineering is probably my favourite part of Kerbal Space Program.

The pair drive over to the surface instruments and use the rover's headlights to help them deploy the ionograph and an additonal solar panel. They'll have to wait for Minmus day for it to work, naturally.

They also collect another round of scientific observations from Greater Flats, and then make the suborbital hop back to base. Meanwhile, we re-join Moon Liner at Mun:

Since Mun base isn't on the equator, a significant plane change is required to get there. With a full load of propellant, Moon Liner is more than capable. And while they probably have enough fuel to get back to Kerbin, another surface refueling will be performed just to make sure.

Pinpoint landings on Mun are a little more difficult. They land about a kilometer away. Fortunately the roving vehicles mean this isn't a problem.

Desburry Kerman remains at the base continuing his research but Gregford drives the tanker out to meet Geofbro and Newfry who are being dropped off here to begin work. Here the three converse while fuel is transferred in the background.

A Kerbin system grand tour for the tourists. Once satisfied Moon Liner takes off to make the trip back home.

The standard aerobraking provides stunning views of Kerbin mixed with the flames of atmospheric entry, and places Moon Liner in an orbit with an apoapsis of around 150km. Analysis has shown that it's more energy efficient to aerobrake to an orbit below, rather than above, the station. The apoapsis height is a tradeoff. Higher is cheaper and safer, but takes longer to get the phase angles correct after circularizing.

Then, the passengers and crew transfer to the Space Liner, which de-orbits. This is also becoming fairly standard. De-orbit happens directly over the Aerospace Complex and is done as a single de-orbit tuned to land them on the runway.

Technically speaking the landing point is short of the runway but Space Liner returns under powered flight to make up the difference. Here it is gliding in over the mountains with the Aerospace Complex in the background.

Another successful landing! The robustness of Space Liner in performing orbital missions has led some engineers at ASSET to consider a cargo version, which we may see in a future update!

Financial Statement

Item	Amount
Starting Funds	$5,461,058
Hiring Costs	-$250,000
Hardware Costs	-$161,440
Contract Completion Awards	$1,082,252
Hardware Recovery Reimbursement	$155,077
Final Funds	$6,286,947

 

Edited October 5, 2019 by Cashen

[Cashen]

Part 23: Asteroids & Airplanes

It's been a while since our last update, but ASSET Corp. has been hard at work behind the scenes on a number of things. This update deals with three different topics that we'll tackle mostly in sequence.

Asteroids

One needs only to look at the cratered surface of Mun to know that impact events happen. Even Kerbin itself has a very large impact crater flooded with sea water and ringed with mountains on its surface. The United Kerbin States government has issued a contract to deploy an infrared telescope, called SENTINEL, into a heliocentric orbit between Kerbin and Eve to get a better perspective on asteroids that may threaten Kerbin. From this vantage point the telescope will be mostly viewing the sun-lit side of objects and they're expected to emit strongly in this wavelength. Naturally, ASSET Corp. has been tasked with this mission.

The SENTINEL IR telescope is not particularly large, nor are the delta-V requirements particularly challenging for this mission, so a simple expendable launch vehicle is more than adequate.

After first stage burnout, the telescope's own propulsion module, permanently affixed, provides all the rest of the energy required for the target orbit between Kerbin and Eve.

And here we see SENTINEL up close during its ejection burn, after performing some high-orbit observations of Kerbin as a calibration test. These telescopes are also well suited for orbital observation of planetary bodies, and will probably feature in many future robotic missions. ASSET CEO Cashen Kerman: "We feel like we missed an opportunity to include these IR telescopes in the Duna robotic mission, we feel they could have provided even more insight. Our engineers and mission planners are designing the hardware for a very similar mission to Eve in the near future and they'll be incorporated, along with some other improvements, but we won't know the exact configuration until after the Duna mission arrives and we get some first hand results to build on."

Space Liner 2

In a previous update we saw a slight modification to Space Liner. In the end, ASSET Engineers took a hard look at the spaceplane and determined it was substantially overbuilt for the intended mission, and this resulted in a significant redesign. While it retains the same basic configuration, the changes are substantial enough to re-designate it as a new version, Space Liner 2:

The main changes are a dramatic shortening of the length of the vehicle, by omitting nearly 50% of the propellant tankage. The wingspan was also shortened and the outboard engine pods moved closer to the fuselage. The dual angled rudders were replaced with a single vertical one. The outboard engine pods were slimmed down to 1.25m circular form factor and now contain a single engine each instead of two. And lastly, the two body-mounted air-brakes were moved to the underside of the engine pods so the craft's braking is symmetrical top and bottom. In all, the weight of the craft was reduced from 116,215kg to 69,045kg, a reduction of a staggering 47,170kg! While cost is less a factor in a fully reusable craft, it was nevertheless dropped from $161,440 to $107,920. The weight savings should reduce fuel consumption and thus, operating costs per mission. The biggest changes however come with the engines.

The wings now mount a pair of J-X4 Whiplash Turbo-ramjets, replacing four CR-7 RAPIER hybrid engines. These are cheaper, lighter, more efficient, and provide better low and mid-altitude thrust than the air-breathing mode of the CR-7. They're used at takeoff and all the way up until just past 20km altitude. Only beyond 15km do the air-breathing RAPIERs outperform them. The Whiplash engines also provided powered flight upon return, and here their better low altitude performance and efficiency will extend Space Liner's effective range in the event of a poorly executed re-entry. For spaceflight, the Aerospike engines have been replaced with two LV-T91 Cheetah engines. These aren't quite as powerful as the Aerospike but offer better vacuum performance with an ISP of 355s. It was found that the atmospheric performance of the Aerospikes wasn't needed due to the air-breathing engines. The two Cheetah engines are ignited once passing through 20km during ascent , before the Whiplash engines are shut down and while the RAPIERs are still taking in air. This boost extends air-breathing mode for a while. Eventually the Whiplash engines are shut down, and then the RAPIERs switch to closed cycle mode, somewhere around 25km altitude. At around 40km altitude, with an apoapsis of 60km, the RAPIERs are shut down and the rest of the orbit insertion is done by the Cheetah's alone.

In this particular flight, Pholo Kerman is flying a group of 16 tourists, plus Dumal anmd Alddock Kerman. Dumal is headed to the Orbital Spaceport to operate the equipment there as Engineer, and Alddock is headed to become the second Scientist at Minmus.

This particular group of tourists requires a Minmus landing, but only orbit of Mun. In any case, tourism missions are becoming somewhat routine, so we won't dwell on this much until the end of the update. In the meantime, if you were wondering why the long pause since the last update, it's because ASSET Corp. (and me, as the player) have been hard at work developing a number of new flying machines.

The ARA 2X Project

There hasn't been much activity on the aircraft front since Pholo's crash of ARA 2 before the runway was properly upgraded. But, there's been lots of work behind the scenes. ASSET Corp. has divided its resources into four sub-groups, each tasked with coming up with a flying machine using a particular propulsion technology. In broad terms, the goal is to have flying machines capable of operating in atmospheres beyond Kerbin's. ASSET CEO, Cashen Kerman: "We know from telescopic observation that there are other bodies in our solar system that have atmospheres, although we don't know much about them yet. Eve, Duna, Jool, and Jool's innermost moon Laythe all have atmospheres. We think it would be really cool, and also really practical, to be capable of performing powered flight in one or more of these locations, so we've come up with a concept we call ARA 2X. Basically, we start from the same basic air-frame and science payload, and then build around it the propulsion system, with the goal of having at least one viable craft that can operate in a non-oxygenated atmosphere, basically by using electric propellers, and also one viable craft that can work in an oxygenated atmosphere. We've got four possible designs that we've evaluating."

The first craft is the ARA 2X SB (Solar Battery) in the category of electronically-driven craft operating in non-oxygen environments.

The basic shape of all the craft is more or less the same. This is the Solar Battery version, which uses solar panels and a very large cluster of batteries to provide electricity to drive the props. The payload bay, from a science perspective, is common in design to all the craft.

The Solar Battery version has an inverted payload bay in the back, revealing the batteries.

Here we see Jebediah testing the solar plane over the Aerospace Complex. Jeb's been busy working on the ARA 2X project ever since returning from Minmus.

• Weight: 11,050 kg
• Cost: $86,127
• Energy Storage: 24,955 EC
• Pros: Completely passive energy generation. Does not require any refueling. Theoretically unlimited range. The lightest of the four designs.
• Cons: Requires sunlight at the appropriate strength. Batteries enable only limited night flying and buffering of sub-optimal sunlight angles. The most expensive of the four designs. Difficult to scale up without increasing size to make room for more solar panels. Solar panels create high drag.

The SB's competitor is the ARA 2X FC (Fuel Cell):

Driven by a pair of identical Standard Rotors, this craft swaps out the batteries for tanks of fuel and oxidizer to operate an array of fuel cells to provide power.

• Weight: 25,775 kg
• Cost: $57,250
• Energy Storage: 1,440 LF & 1,760 Ox (Approx. 1,300,000 EC equivalent)
• Pros: Lower cost than solar. Operates the same regardless of day/night or distance to the sun. Can be scaled up to higher power rotors easily without significant changes to air-frame. Lower drag, slightly faster.
• Cons: Twice the weight of solar variant. Requires refueling and supporting infrastructure. Under-powered, like the solar variant.

The last two designs are in the air-breathing category, begunning with the ARA 2X TJ (Turbo Jet):

In this particular instance, the test craft has been outfitted with a pair of Panther engines, but it could easily be given Whiplash or Wheasley engines, depending on the need. These sub-variants are tentatively called TR (Turbo Ramjet) and TF (Turbo Fan) respectively. The only variant that doesn't use propellers, this gives a little more space at the leading edge for more wing area, and shorter landing gear. "Really, it's just speculation at this point. We don't know if there are even any other oxygenated atmospheres in the solar system. The exact layout and choice of engine would require knowledge of said hypothetical atmosphere first. The jet powered variant is the only craft that could theoretically reach the upper portions of an atmosphere for study, which gives it a great advantage. In the case of Kerbin, a Whiplash powered variant would be ideal for reaching the upper atmosphere. But the Panther provides better agility, and much higher efficiency at slower speeds and low altitudes. Personally, I would pick the Panther engine if it could reach the upper atmosphere."

The following stats are for the Panther-powered TJ variant.

• Weight: 19,393 kg
• Cost: $61,817
• Energy Storage: 1,860 LF
• Pros: Flexibility of engine choice. Capable of very high speeds and high altitudes. Well understood technology.
• Cons: Requires off-world refueling. Requires an oxygenated atmosphere.

The last (and least) variant, also in the air-breathing category, is the ARA 2X TP (Turbo Prop)

This turned out to be a bit of a disappointment and really struggled to find practical advantages over the jet-powered variant.

• Weight: 25,171 kg
• Cost: $61,658
• Energy Storage: 2,787 LF / 33 Ox
• Pros: None, really.
• Cons: Requires off-world refueling. Requires an oxygenated atmosphere. Slower and less fuel efficient per distance than jets. Turbo props don't come with alternators, hence requiring alternate power generation (Fuel cell, in this case).

In the end, the turbo-prop variant really seemed like a dead-end, technologically. Jets will be the preferred propulsion system in oxygenated atmospheres. More interesting is the electrically driven aircraft, as the perception is we're more likely to find atmospheres lacking oxygen, and in that space, the fuel cell and solar variants both have compelling advantages. Tentatively, the fuel cell version has a slight edge here, due to the operational flexibility of fuel cells and the fact that the team working on it has presented a version that's been scaled up to use the large motors to provide additional performance - something the solar craft wouldn't be able to match without dramatically increasing the surface area to mount more panels on. That said, the simplicity of solar is appealing, and may work well on a place like Eve, but in the outer solar system, the fuel cells will have the advantage yet again. There's also no reason the two can't join together and produce a fuel cell powered craft with solar panels for range-extension.

In the mean time, Jebediah and Karfurt Kerman hop in a Whiplash-powered version to do some addtional atmospheric testing and science gathering.

This version has been given four atmospheric analyzers. The theory is the plane can ascend through the low atmosphere into the upper atmosphere in one region, and then descend back down in another, grabbing four samples along the way without having to transmit or download data. In this case, they're headed from the Aerospace Complex, over the nearby islands, and intending to land on the island runway.

A bit of a botched landing. They cut power a little too early and hit the ground a little too hard. Not nearly as potentially catastrophic as Pholo's accident earlier, which very nearly killed her as the craft cartwheeled. This was just the right engine breaking loose and the craft skidding to a stop. It does raise some questions about using the weaker landing gear, though, especially since there are no smooth runways on other planets! The science gathering part of this flight is a success, but the damaged craft had to be loaded on a barge to be returned to the Aerospace Complex for salvage.

 Meanwhile, at Minmus:

Our tourists have arrived. And in a stoke of luck, the surface base is in the right spot for a direct descent burn from the flyby trajectory, without a separate orbit insertion.

Landing goes smoothly, and Bill Kerman arrives to refuel Moon Liner, while Alddock Kerman disembarks to begin his tenure as a Minmus Scientist.

After a brief stay on the surface and interacting with the tourists, Valentina prepares to leave Minmus as Bill backs the tanker up.

Some very excited tourists, with Minmus base out the window.

Then, it's time to leave. They'll briefly orbit Mun to satisfy all the tourist itineraries before returning home.

A view of the far side of Mun with Kerbin in the background.

Kerbin and Mun's limb visible out the window. Everyone looks very excited!

The rest of the flight can be mostly described as routine.

Space Liner's return follows a similar trajectory as on previous flights. The pitch angle in the upper atmosphere can be used to tune the landing point, but even if this goes badly, there's plenty of fuel for powered flight post-entry.

As it turns out their entry is a little short and the Whiplash engines have to provide a little more powered flight than expected. But that's exactly why they're included!

A little more fine tuning of the runway alignment than on previous flights, so they touchdown further and stop further down the runway, but all in all, a successful landing! So, how did Space Liner 2 perform? Well, we know from the previous flight that the old variant consumed $6,,363 of propellant, and Space Liner 2 in this mission consumed just $3,359 worth, almost cutting the fuel usage in half!

Financial Statement

Item	Amount
Starting Funds	$6,286,947
Contract Advances	$269,537
Hardware Costs	-$250,662
Contract Completion Awards	$1,834,078
Hardware Recovery Reimbursement	$236,982
World First Bonuses	$4,800
Final Funds	$8,381,682

Science Earned: 590.2 (Not including science transmitted from Mun and Minmus MPLs)

It's worth pointing out that at this point, the technology tree has been completed.

Edited October 5, 2019 by Cashen

[Cashen]

Part 24: Mun Science Exploration

We're getting close to the arrival of the probes to Duna, the first truly interplanetary mission. Excitement is building and plans are being drawn up for a follow-up crewed expedition. The general consensus is that it will follow a similar template as the moon missions. That is, rather than a simple go-and-return mission, permanent installations will be sent there, and a team of Kerbals will call the Duna system their home for a while, doing research, gathering samples, and furthering scientific understanding of the solar system. The exact conditions aren't known - the only knowledge we have of Duna is observation from Kerbin. When the probes arrive, we'll have photos, detailed maps, and an understanding of the system suitable to drawing up a detailed plan to go there. But, for now, the moons of Kerbin are still producing fruitful research and act as a test-bed for hardware and technology that will eventually visit other planets.

One key piece of hardware that we'll be focusing on in this update is the LRTV or Lander/Rover Transporter Vehicle, and the Science Rover it carries. It performed just fine in a limited mission on Minmus in a previous update, but this will be the first proper test of its intended purpose.

The mission will be flown by the first pair of Kerbals to arrive at Mun Base, Desbury and Gregford. Here there rover is lifted up under its carrier vehicle and Gregford is transferring fuel for the flight.

Newfry and Geofbro will remain behind working at Mun Base. The mission will be a relatively short range suborbital hop to a geologically different part of Mun.

The surface base is located in the large Northeast Basin region of Mun. Directly north is a large Midland Crater, at the northern fringe of the Northeast Basin where it meets the Lowlands. Here we see the arc they hop with, planning to land at the far northern edge of the Midland Crater. This will give them access to three geologic zones of Mun.

They set down next to a smaller crater, visible in the lower left of this picture, on a slight slope.

After setting down, the pair spend time lowering and detaching the rover, and taking measurements and samples around the landing area. The gradual rise in the background is the northern slope of the much larger Midland Crater.

They set off in a generally northern direction towards the slope, stopping here and there to use the robotic arm to analyze the rocks. The rover performs excellently, the added weight of fuel tanks and low center of gravity making it very stable even at speeds around 10 m/s.

Continuing north and up the slope of the Midland Crater. To the east, a smaller, younger crater has left its mark in the wall of the larger one, producing some very steep slopes. The terrain changes from a dark grey to a much lighter hue.

On the way up the slope they stop by a very small, and very recent-looking crater, using the robotic arm to scan and take samples.

Later on, a bigger crater. The wider Midland Crater is visible in the background.

They climb all the way up, passing back into the Northeast Basin and then Lowland zones, before stopping a while to admire the view. Centered in the right-side window is the crater they landed next to, more than 6km away.

Having circled the smaller, steep-walled crater they drove past in a previous shot, they now descend the other side of it. The landing crater is visible in the top right. In case you were wondering how steep this is:

The rover handles it extremely well, riding the brake down most of the way of course, but stable and controllable.

Almost 35 degrees down-slope!

For some wider context, the rover is descending the narrow strip between the two craters centered in this photo, having circled around the smaller one to the left.

All in all, a successful demonstration of the rover's abilities. The only criticism of the design is the lander. It seems the original thought process was focused on a lander that could also deploy a rover. The lander can is probably not even needed. A better starting point perspective would probably be a rover with an attachment that allows it to fly. That is, the lander portion could easily be an un-crewed package of fuel tanks and rocket engines controlled from the rover like a flight module. This would save weight and simplify things, something that might be incorporated into future designs for other planets. But the rover itself performed flawlessly, and the large amount of samples and data will keep the remote lab at Mun Base busy for a while. Now, the hop back to base.

After landing near the base, they drive back with the rover, samples and data in tow, ready to get down to the business of analysis, answering questions about how Mun formed and what it's made of. While all of this was going on, two other developments were taking place.

Space Liner 2 and Moon Liner performed another double-moon-landing tour for a group of 17 tourists, which went off without incident. These are more or less routine. They provide a great deal of revenue for the company but aren't worth showing in great detail anymore. They are nevertheless providing a great deal of funds which the company is stockpiling for the large, ambitious, and expensive job of exploring other planets. Launching space stations, mining equipment, surface bases and exploration vehicles for the moons cost quite a lot, it will only be even more so to do that on, say, Duna or Eve.

Also around this time, SENTINEL reached its perihelion and inserted itself into the proper orbit to begin scanning for Kerbin-crossing asteroids. I'm sure we'll hear more about this in the future as well.

It's worth pointing out that there were several minor contracts accepted and completed in the background as well, mostly having to do with recovering or transmitting science back from both Moons.

Financial Statement

Item	Amount
Starting Funds	$8,381,682
Contract Advances	$84,225
Hardware Costs	-$107,920
Contract Completion Awards	$2,958,287
Hardware Recovery Reimbursement	$104,749
Final Funds	$11,421,023

 

Edited October 5, 2019 by Cashen

[Cashen]

Part 25: Duna/Ike Probe Mission Arrives

ASSET Corp. HQ has been filled with anticipation of the arrival of the Duna/Ike Science Mission. Before we begin in earnest, some housekeeping matters to address.

• First, some out-of-story news. I finally got around to updating the first post with a proper table of contents. I also noticed a numbering error when going back through the old posts so I corrected that, which is why the numbers jumped forward slightly. There's also a crew roster there to allow (and readers) to better keep track of who's who and where they are. Anyway, back to the story:
• A while back the Fundraising Campaign was terminated when it became clear that the tourism missions were bringing in ample funds. While useful during the expensive construction of all the moon infrastructure, it seems the pendulum has swung in the opposite direciton. Too much funding coming in with not enough new construction to spend it on (not yet anyway). So an Appreciation Campaign has been started, using 35% of contract income to fund a kind of advertising campaign to raise the prestige and reputation of the company in the public, to put some of that money to use and also to attract more lucrative contracts.
• Having achieved a sufficient level of technological progress, the company has also decided to begin sharing its scientific discoveries and research, as an alternate source of funding. The goal is to be a science and exploration company, not a tourist company, so this program, the Patents Licencing Program, will act as a new source of income allowing the company to focus more on, well, science and exploration, and leave more of the tourism to others.
• A one-time Research Rights Sell-Out was also conducted as an addendum to the Patents Licensing Program. (This brought the science inventory down to zero and all future science points will be exchanged for funds now that the tech tree is complete).
• Concurrent to the report below, there was another tourism mission to both Minmus and Mun that takes place "off camera".

Having said all of that, let's see how the probe mission to Duna plays out.

The probe mission, if you recall, was launched as a single monolithic package, with all the components bundled together. It's worth reviewing. The forward portion is the Duna Polar Science Package, and it contains four sub-units. Two RA-100 Interplanetary Relay satellites will provide solid relay communication back to Kerbin. They'll be arranged in elliptical polar orbits just like the pair at Kerbin. The other two modules are Ore Scanning satellites, one for Duna, and one for Ike. The middle module, arranged in a opposing configuration and separated by a stack separator ring and fairing, is the Duna Equatorial Science Package, which contains two sub-units, two probes each carrying 3 RA-2 relay sattelites, one for Duna and one for Ike, and they'll set up the familiar shorter-range relay constellations around both bodies, providing total coverage for future crewed exploration missions. The rear part is the Orange Tank transfer stage. Here, the two science parts break apart, and they do so using separatrons and while on an impact course with Duna to make sure there's no debris. They do this along the orbit vector to provider separation, so that they arrive at different times for ease of management.

The transfer stage uses its remaining delta-V to slow the Equatorial package further, before it's jettisoned to crash into Duna. Here we see the Equatorial unit on its own, prior to deployment of the heat shield. Both the Polar and Equatorial units will use Duna's atmosphere for their initial capture.

A close-up of the Polar unit after heat shield deployment.

Here we see the planned trajectory of the Polar unit, which will use atmospheric braking while passing over Duna's north pole.

Similarly, the trajectory of the Equatorial package. And I have to say I love the Trajectories mod.

The separation of the two units early in Duna's sphere of influence means the Polar unit arrives first by about two hours. Here it reaches periapsis over Duna's north polar ice cap.

Final orbit stabilization takes place over the south polar ice cap, and the package breaks up into its component parts. The central unit de-orbits to crash into Duna.

The two ore scanners deploy solar panels and scanners. One will lift itself into a higher orbit of Duna, and the other will wait for an opportune time to hop over Duna and transfer to Ike.

One orbit later, and the northern Interplanetary Relay burns to lift its apoapsis to 40,000 km. It will take 20 days to reach that altitude over the north pole, so until then, the southern relay will wait in low orbit so the two are lined up properly. One should be at periapsis when the other is at apoapsis.

Shortly thereafter the Equatorial unit arrives, brakes similarly, and deploys the relay packages.

First, three RA-2 relay satellites are placed in 1,500 km circular equatorial orbits of Duna, spaced 120 degrees apart. These will provide almost 100% coverage of Duna's surface, and combined with the RA-100s in polar orbit, will mean constant communication ability back to Kerbin and its relays.

The other unit transfers across to Ike, and performs a similar job, ringing Duna's moon with three identical RA-2 satellites.

The second-to-last part of the mission is hopping the Ike scanner across. In hindsight it was probably a bad idea to place this satellite in the Polar Unit. In the future mission to Eve, which will look similar, this unit will be placed in the Equatorial unit instead. This will be even more important to try to get to Gilly.

The completed layout, minus lifting the southern polar Interplanetary Relay. Everything is in place for future exploration of Duna. The Duna Exploration contract was completed, as was a contract to transmit science data from around Duna, and several new follow-up contracts accepted for crewed exploration to come. So, what are ASSET's plans for Duna?

• The Ore scanners have both confirmed the presence of Ore on their respective bodies. Data about specific locations and concentrations is still being processed, but a permanent outpost on both bodies self-sustained by ore extraction is definitely possible and will feature in the plans.
• Limited observation from close-up shows that yes, Duna has an atmosphere, but probably not enough for reliable atmospheric flight. Parachutes will work, but not as well as they do on Kerbin. So aircraft are probably unlikely, but a science rover with a lander module is probably the way to go, and parachutes can assist with some of the delta-V requirements.
• Surface bases with rover/lander units will be deployed to both Duna and Ike. In a bid to simplify things, the role of surface base, tanker vehicle, and ore extraction and processing, will all be rolled into a single package, a Mobile Surface Base that will be generally confined to a small area, but mobile on wheels to meet up with returning landers. The fewer pieces of equipment, the better.
• An orbital station will be deployed to Duna to handle incoming and outgoing traffic, handle the space-based orbital science, crew movements as well as a spaceport for potential tourism missions.
• In all, ASSET estimates it will need a total crew of about twelve. Four each for the surface bases and four for an orbital station. The company will begin recruitment of potential candidates both from within its own ranks of existing Kerbonauts and external hiring. These will need to be committed Kerbals willing to spend a prolonged period away from Kerbin.

As it turns out, the transfer window to Eve is rapidly approaching. While there are no Eve specific contracts, ASSET Corp. isn't waiting for contracts to dictate direction anymore. Stay tuned!

Financial Statement

Item	Amount
Starting Funds	$11,421,023
Appreciation Campaign Startup	-$285,250
Contract Advances	$236,812
Hardware Costs	-$107,920
Contract Completion Awards	$2,728,915
Hardware Recovery Reimbursement	$104,800
Research Rights Sell-off	$14,934
Patents Licencing Income	$102,434
Final Funds	$14,215,748