Entry to the Apollo 13 challenge

[purpleivan]

This is part one of an entry to @Robonoise Apollo 13 recreation challenge, which requires two flights to be made. Firstly a successful one, proving the vehicle's capability to land and return from the Mun, followed by a second, in which the Munar Module acts as a lifeboat. This post contains the first of these flights, a post on the 2nd (already flown) will have to wait until a little after Christmas... I've got a plane to catch.

 

After some delays (fuel problems with the SM-25 being one) The team at the KSC finally got around to doing what they do best... throwing lumps of metal at distant bodies, in this case the Mun.

Twice.

The night before the launch a call was made to Lemmy Kerman in the the KSC's Frilly Additions and Adornments dept. to arrange for appropriate signage to be displayed on the craft.

"Yer sure... sounds kinda funny" replied Lemmy, struggling to here his supervisor on the crackly phone line.

"Just make sure it's neat and tidy this time, and not looking like a 5 year old did it" instructed the FAA director.

 

The morning had a distinct chill, as the crew of Val, Bob and Bill, climbed into the capsule of their vehicle. It's stated to goal to find out if the number 13 is indeed unlucky. Emblazoned in enormous... well, 3cm high letters next to the hatch (cutbacks in the paint shop) was the name of their vehicle.

Apple 13.

To push the envelope of unluckiness, each member of the crew was equipped with 13 pairs of socks and and extra, non functional, switch was added to the "what month is it" display console.

The full details of their exploits, in blazing colour can be found here, with edited highlights below.

Apple 13 : Flight 1

Launch was surprisingly unproblematic, with no death dealing explosion reported.

An orbit of 603km was established with surprising ease... the vehicle turned out to be a bit overdone in the fuel dept.

The burn the vessel and its brave crew to the Mun went without a hitch.

Bob did not get to use the collection of clown car noises he'd brought along on his phone, to accompany technical failures at any point during the TMI burn.

Will nothing go wrong for this fine crew, well they still had to dock with the Munar Module, perhaps luck would go their way and bad luck would strike.

Val nudged the CSM towards the MM, attached to the spent (well it would have been if it wasn't still 1/3 full) 2nd stage.

Closer, closer... even closer.

Capture!

Damm it... not even a bang or a judder to prove that 13 was the unluckiest of integers. Future testing might be required to see if bad luck centers around a floating point number... but they'll need to blow the budget wide open for that.

After docking the MM was extracted.

Hours later Apple 13 encountered the Mun.

The crew reported that the surface was grey, but better looking than the last time they came.

After separation, the MM lit up the descent stage engine, which neither exploded, nor putted out in comical fashion, but instead provided a dependible stream of thrust.

On approaching the surface Val looked nervously at the fuel gauge, were they about to run out, sending the craft hurtling towards it's doom... she sure hoped so.

But no, the tanks were still about 25% full.

Val headed out the hatch first, her suit providing annoyingly good protection from the hazardous environment. She was then joined on the surface by Bob.

Perhaps the surface is just a thin crust thought Val, maybe if I give it a good stamping, it'll break, hurtling us down into a deep chasm.

But no, the surface was solid.

Bob deployed the scientific gear, while Val raised the flag, who shutted her eyes and slammed the pole into the ground, hoping it might hit her boot.

"KSC... I've got an itch that I can't scratch out here, does that count as bad luck" Bob enquired, hoping at last to have scientific proof of the unluckiness of 13.

"Wait, wait... we'll get the boys in back room on to that and check the list" replied Jeb, taking his turn as CAPCOM.

"Sorry Bob... it's no on the approved list of mishaps, so it ain't proof" came the answer.

Ok, ok... maybe disaster strikes on the way home, with the goal of reaching the Mun attained. No one expects bad luck on the way home right, with all the celebrating going on. Maybe bad luck has a sense of dramatic timing.

With that thought in mind, Val and Bob climbed back into the MM.

Perhaps the ascent stage would fail to light, a fuel tank explode, an annoying squeek start in the microwave oven.

But no... science was not to have its way.

High over the Mun surface a faultless (damm it) docking took place.

The trip back to Kerbin was uneventful

With passage through the "hot, hot, hot" part of the atmosphere completed, the single chute deployed perfectly, with no twisting of lines, or tears in the fabric of any kind.

The crew put a brave face on it, their slight smiles hiding their deep disappointment in failure of the mission to fail.

With no mishaps of any kind being encountered on the mission, the entire scientific bedrock of their space program was thrown into doubt. Was water wet, was 4 bigger than 3, was Kerman really the only last name.

Criticism of the program grew, with talk of its cancellation. Something had to be done, the lights at the KSC burned deep into the night, with engineers and mission planners desparate to come up with a solution, which eventually became obvious  to them.

Do it all again and see what happens.

 

Coming soon, the flight of Apple 13... the sequel.

Edited January 1, 2020 by purpleivan

[purpleivan]

Apple 13: Part 2... or, The Invisible Hand.

With a complete failure to fail weighing heavily on the scientists at the KSC, it was decided that they wanted a do over. Only one mind you, as anything only needs to be tested twice to be known to be correct... that's a scientific fact.

Val announced that she had urgent business to attend to, Jeb stepped forward to pilot the mission.

Takeoff was once again infuriatingly uneventful.

However at about 10km above the surface, luck, the bad kind (hooray!) was about to strike.

Some invisible force, the hand of fate if you will, caused the center engine of the 1st stage to shut down early. With about 50% of the burn remaining, there was rejoicing that this might mean the mission would be aborted.

However the four remaining engines continued to burn, pushing the vehicle towards it's intended orbit.

In the high atmosphere stage 1 was detached and the engine of stage 2 burst into life, without a fizzle pop "what was that" type of sound, to signal mission failure (or success... I'm confused which).

After the circularisation burn, Apple 13 was left in an orbit of 603km.

When the transfer window to the Mun arrived, it was time to light up the 2nd stage engine ones more.

After the transfer burn was completed, the fairing covering the MM was detached.

Once again a kerbal used skill, cunning and a few well directed curse words, to line up the CSM with the MM.

Once again a successful docking was made, without even a hint of grinding metal sounds to suggest the ports were dangerously mashed together.

With the vehicle well on its way to the Mun, it was time to jetison the 2nd stage boost.

A nice clean (oh cruel fate... when will something go seriously wrong) trajectory around the Mun.

Cruel fate's looked at the clock, checked it's schedule and now is indeed time for something serious to go awry.

For reasons unknown the a series of cascade failures occured, as if someone, somewhere, was flicking switches to the wrong position. First the CSM engine was disabled, with Bill shouting "bang" loudly a moment later to make things more dramatic). Then the SAS modules on both the CSM and MM cut out, before the batteries on the CSM also ceased functioning.

Adrift in a slowly tumbling, powerless spacecraft, it's three occupants looking at each other in glee.

"Doomed" they cried in unison, before firmly shaking each other's hands.

Only one thing for it... call for help from the KSC.

The advice (barely audible over the sound of popping champange corks and loud cheers) was to "power up the MM guys... it just became a lifegaurd (or other similar imagery)".

Additionally they were told that the CM was now to be concidered as lava, so no stepping foot in it until re-entry prep. The MM only contained seating for two, so Jeb volunteered to take the external seat, which had conveniently been included in the design of Apple 13.

One small problem, their lifeguard (I know there's a more suitable word), with it's attached hunk of junk (for those not paying attention, that's the CSM) were headed for deep space, after their Mun encounter. A burn of the MM engine would be required to put them on a free return trajectory back to Kerbin.

Well the engine lit without a hitch, but vehicle was more than a little of a handful without SAS, so Jeb, with a fine view of the action from his perch on top of the MM, made adjusments with the RCS to keep things straight.

This was a little taxing as the MM had no RCS (although through an accident of design, plenty of monopropellant), so all the force was being applied at the CSM end of the vehicle.

With the free return trajectory established, it was time time to put their feet up and watch the universe go by. They took some photos of the Mun as the passed by, later to have bunny ears and a clown nose attached to it, in an app of Bill's phone.

Jeb, still stuck outside, entertained himself with an imaginary game of solitaire.

After being hurled around the backside of the Mun, the combined CSM and MM and it crew of brave (but now unluck) kerbals, headed for home.

With just 15 minutes to go until they reached periapsis, it was time to get ready for re-entry.

First thing to do was to get Jeb back inside, but on leaving his seat, he was hurled away from the spacecraft at high speed. Would he be left to make his own, very lethal (as opposed to just slightly) re-entry, or could he adjust his trajectory and merely be left marooned in orbit of Kerbin.

No... we're not talking Kraken induced speeds of physical impossibility here, just the usual "whoops... better fire up the rocket pack and catch up with the ship" kind.

With Jeb finally abord the CSM (as well as the rest of the crew... don't forget them), the MM was jetisoned.

Farewell you hunk of junk, you point of failure, you... what... it's not... we're in the hunk of junk now, ok, ok, gotcha.

Farewell MM we thank you.

With just a few minutes to go before interface, the SM was jetisoned, to join the MM in a less than survivable descent through Kerbin's atmosphere.

The CM slammed into that atmosphere at a fair old lick. (1.274 fair old licks to be precise), protected by its heathshield. The MM and SM were not so lucky.

The blistering heat of the plasma outside the capsule was a welcome sight, as the trip around the Mun in the MM had been a chilly one. The heaters had been turned off, to provide power for Bill's waffle iron.

With passage through the upper atmosphere complete, it was time to open up the cargo bay...

... and deploy the chute.

At 2days, 3 hours and 24 minutes after launch, Apple 13 made it safely back to the surface of Kerbin.

Later when asked for his thoughts on the misison, it's flight controller stated that it was a successful failure. The goal had been to prove that 13 was indeed an unlucky number and now with the power of the "do over", that had been irrefutably proved to be true.

Go science!

Edited January 1, 2020 by purpleivan

[fulgur]

Do you mean lifeboat? A lifeguard is the person at a swimming pool who stops people from drowning.

[purpleivan]

1 hour ago, fulgur said:

Do you mean lifeboat? A lifeguard is the person at a swimming pool who stops people from drowning.

I didn't want to do the direct movie quote ("the LEM just became a lifeboat"), so tried to make a silly joke, that on reflection might not have been a smart move, about not having the right word.

Edited January 1, 2020 by purpleivan

[fulgur]

You just need to make it even sillier, to register as a joke.