totm feb 2020 Kānāwai: Ares to Mars

[Jay The Amazing Toaster]

Orion 23 and Altair 12, 2025

Crews going to Mars will need to be able to live and operate in confined spaces for long periods of time. The effects this will have on crew will need to be studied in depth before venturing out on such a long journey. While the Lunar Outpost is smaller than the habitats that are envisioned for a future Mars mission, the outpost provides a useful platform for conducting studies for how crew will live on another planet. The crew of Orion 23 will attempt to live in the Lunar Outpost for about 6 months, from there the space program will begin the process of crew rotation to have a continuous crewed presence on the Lunar surface. The crew will also need to deploy the previously launched MMSEV which will enable further exploration of Copernicus Crater.

The launch today will begin with the last Ares V using RS-68B's, the previous mission showcased the RS-68K's were safe and reliable engines to use for missions going forward.



 

"Orion, you are go for docking."





Like previous missions, crew will be picked up by the autonomously driven MMSEV. However, like with Orion 21, the crew will not head directly to the outpost, instead they will drive a few kilometers West in order to deploy MMSEV 2.





The crew arrives at Altair 11 and MMSEV 2. Like on Orion 21, the mission specialist will climb aboard the Altair and operate the Luna-arm to deploy the vehicle.











The two MMSEV's come face to face. MMSEV 2 is an upgraded version using lessons learned from MMSEV 1 and is an improved rover. The two rovers will drive back to the Lunar Outpost together.







The crew arrive at the Lunar Outpost, they will then begin systems checkups on the MMSEV before departing out on long distance roving missions. MMSEV 1 will stay behind and act as a backup along with 2 crew members in case there is a failure on the new rover. Previous Lunar crews had not utilized MMSEV for scientific exploration missions in this capacity prior, in fear of the rover breaking down. However, now that they have access to a redundant one, they can exercise a little more freedom.



After a few weeks, MMSEV is taken by two of the crew to drive South. It will first stop at the North-Western foothills portion of Copernicus Crater's central peaks. It his hoped that rock samples from this area can be analyzed and help determine the crater's age.



After the long road trip, crew arrive at a large rock worthy of study.



The mission's geologist will take a sample of this rock back to base for further study.



Two months later, another mission with the MMSEV is undertaken. This time to explore the Western crater rim areas. A crater is found and is deemed worthy of analysis. Another capability of the rover is being showcased, the new robotic arm. This arm carries several sensitive instruments in order to analyze rock and crater samples, it also is able to be put on and taken off the rover easily. The rover doesn't drive with the arm attached to protect the sensitive instruments.





A view from inside the rover gives the mission's geologist a good view of the instrument's activities.



Orion 23 proves a successful mission. In a few months there will be the first crew rotation on the Lunar surface with Orion 25 and Altair 13. This will mark a continuous crewed presence on the Lunar surface, a huge step forward for crewed space missions.

Hope y'all enjoyed the post for today. I hope you're all glad to meet MMSEV 2, decked out in all new communications antennae and decals! I want to thank @AstroMods and @Antiperson for the new Constellation and Lunar Surface Systems decals seen on the left side of the rover. It definitely helps improve the look and differentiates it from MMSEV 1.

[Jay The Amazing Toaster]

Orion 25 and Altair 13, Late 2025

Longer terms stays on the Lunar surface are becoming the norm. This mission marks the first time that crew will launch toward the Moon while another is already on the surface. A new era in spaceflight begins with the first Lunar crew rotation.

After the crew lands on the Lunar surface they meet the others in the Lunar Outpost. Like crew rotations on the ISS, hands are shaken and hugs are exchanged, however the Outpost becomes quite cramped with a crew of 8 onboard so the crew of Orion 23 is allowed to head home while Orion 25 takes it's place. Orion 23 has completed its objectives after the 6 month long stay and boards Altair 12.

6 Months on this lonely grey rock can have a number of psychological effects that will be studied once Orion 23 returns to Earth. Examinations will be conducted to see if there are any differences between them and crews on the ISS. The Lunar Outpost is also far more cramped than the more spacious ISS is.  Can a crew really be equipped to handle a several year voyage to Mars? These are the questions that will need to be solved in the next few years before an orbital mission is conducted. However for the time being, the job of Orion 25 is not done, crew boards MMSEV 2 and drives towards the North-Western end of Copernicus Crater.

Examinations of this crater are conducted to see how this formation occurs, the data gained from the robotic arm will be examined further back in the Outpost as well as back on Earth. In the meantime Orion 25 will continue in testing the limits of crew on another world.


A short post for today! Been getting very busy the past few weeks but I'm attempting to get back into the swing of things. Orion 25 will be followed by Orion 27 and question of what to do with the aging ISS are also on the minds of everyone on the ground. There are some surprises coming down the road as we get into 2026 and 2027 for those who stay tuned.

[Talverd]

Lovely!

[Lil_Bread402]

Splendid, Spectacular even. Perhaps Georges?

[emord-nillap]

What mod are the large deployable solar panels at the lunar outpost from?

Also, beautiful screenshots!

[Kerbalsaurus]

7 minutes ago, emord-nillap said:

What mod are the large deployable solar panels at the lunar outpost from?

Also, beautiful screenshots!

Those are actually stock, I believe. They’re just retextured from restock and shabby.

[emord-nillap]

The ones on the ground next to the base?

[Kerbalsaurus]

4 minutes ago, emord-nillap said:

The ones on the ground next to the base?

Oh, those? I have no idea. Maybe BG Planetside Technologies?

[emord-nillap]

1 hour ago, Kerbalsaurus said:

Oh, those? I have no idea. Maybe BG Planetside Technologies?

Thanks, I had a look but I’m not sure. Also, what’s shabby?

[guest10985]

1 hour ago, emord-nillap said:

The ones on the ground next to the base?

BDB

[emord-nillap]

6 minutes ago, guest10985 said:

BDB

Ohhh…

Is there any chance of getting these parts without bdb?

[Misguided Kerbal]

1 hour ago, emord-nillap said:

Is there any chance of getting these parts without bdb?

You could just remove all the other folders except 'ALSEP' I think. I am pretty sure they require the breaking ground DLC to function though, if you don't have that.

[Kerbalsaurus]

2 hours ago, emord-nillap said:

Thanks, I had a look but I’m not sure. Also, what’s shabby?

Oh, it’s a part shader. I pretty sure it makes the solar panels shinier in restock.

[Jay The Amazing Toaster]

Gateway, 2027

As NASA begins to prep for upcoming Mars missions, it will continue along the Constellation program's philosophy of testing hardware on and around the Moon. One of such pieces of hardware is the habitation section for the upcoming Mars Transfer Vehicle (MTV). The space program has tested crew's ability to live in space for decades, from Gemini, to Apollo, to Skylab, to ISS flights, and most recently at the Lunar Outpost. ISS flights have had crews live on station for roughly a year, trying to understand how zero-gravity has affected the body. Lunar Outpost missions last at maximum of six months, which has given scientists useful data as to how crews adapt to low-g environments. Today the Gateway will launch on an Ares V rocket to the Moon where it will stay in a Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO) awaiting crew. Gateway will be a single use, temporary station to test out the MTV habitation hardware. Crew will live on Gateway for 2 years in a zero-g environment to test both the crew and habitat to simulate the duration of a full Mars mission. Crew will launch to Gateway on a separate flight at a later date.

 

As the vehicle reaches space, Gateway is revealed!

Gateway is a fully fledged Mars Transfer Vehicle habitat section. However unlike the actual Mars flights, this vehicle will not dock to any MTV propulsion elements. At the front is an uncrewed Orion SM, this will brake Gateway into NRHO when the time comes. The main piece of hardware that will be tested is the inflatable habitation section. An inflatable habitat of this size has never been tested in the harsh environment of space before, now it will be placed around the Moon. Other in space inflatables such as the BEAM module on the ISS have mostly been used as storage, this will be a fully fledged habitat. Also on the vehicle is a "T" section, this serves as a secondary docking port either for emergency purposes as well as a docking port for future Mars Ascent Vehicles. Next to the T section there is also a large cannister, this mostly holds consumables but in theory could also be used as a solar storm shelter if needed.

Earth Departure Stage performs the usual TLI burn.

The Orion SM opens its solar panels to provide power on the way to the Moon.

At long last, Gateway is in Lunar orbit. This marks one of the largest steps towards the Mars goal, it's the first piece of real Mars program hardware being launched. Soon crew will arrive on a separate flight and inflate the central habitation section and live on Gateway for two years.

 

Happy Holidays everyone! I'm happy to finally reveal Gateway to y'all. Not much to say since the chapter really speaks for itself but this was a really fun idea to try and execute. I didn't really plan on doing a Lunar Station at any point but after some suggestions I did find it interesting to try out a pathfinder type vehicle for the Mars habitat. While this idea doesn't exactly exist in any of the Constellation documentation I've found, there are concepts of using MTV hardware in Lunar orbit such as the concept shown below.  
 

L1 lunar gateway/MTV habitat testbed

I also skipped the year 2026 as I felt it would mostly just be continuing the existing Lunar missions and I particularly don't like to retread water if I don't have to. The next entry will follow Orion 30 to Gateway. After that I plan to hit the ground running and hopefully finish the timeline before KSP 2 comes out in late February. Once again happy holidays and have a great new year!

[Lil_Bread402]

Splendid!

[Jay The Amazing Toaster]

Orion 30 and Gateway Logistics Module, 2027

After thirty successful missions, Orion has proved itself a capable vehicle for ferrying to and from it's destination. Today it will be put through its most demanding mission yet, a two year long stay aboard the Gateway habitat. On the flipside, Ares V will be launching it's least demanding mission yet, a simple logistics module rather than a full Altair. The crew of four will be spending the longest amount of time in zero-g to date, inside a fully fledged habitat designed to sustain them for the duration of a Mars mission. The crew will not receive any resupply from Earth during their stay. However, in the event things go wrong, the crew will be close-by enough to Earth they can return safely within a few days.

The crew of four stand proudly outside their Ares I launch vehicle and Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle. They will embark on the most physically and psychologically demanding mission yet, paving the way for future crews to go to Mars.

The payload is revealed! The lightest payload that has ever been launched on Ares V, a simple Cygnus derived mission module. It adds a small amount of extra habitable volume, but for the most part it just contains extra supplies. 



Following their normal flight profile, the crew launches and rendezvous with the Gateway Mission Module, in Low Earth Orbit. 





After the TLI the crew separates from the Earth Departure Stage.









The crew arrives at the Moon and enters NRHO, after some time they are able to arrive at the Gateway habitat. The propulsion module is dethatched in order to make space for the Orion to dock with Gateway.







After the crew docks, they take some time to relax before beginning one of the riskiest parts of the mission, inflating the habitat module. This process will take the astronauts a few hours, the most recent experience NASA had with this was the previous BEAM module launched to the ISS back in 2016, over 10 years prior.





Success! The inflatable habitat module is now ready for business. The crew will begin to stretch their legs in the largest diameter habitat since Skylab. They're definitely going to need that all that habitation volume, it's going to be a long two years.

Finally glad to kick off the new year with such a monuments mission. It's only going to ramp up in excitement from here. Next mission will handle Orion 31 to Lunar Outpost, after that we will begin to test the other components of MTV hardware. Hope y'all stay tuned!

[Jay The Amazing Toaster]

Orion 31 and Altair 16, 2027

Missions to the Moon and the Lunar Outpost are continuing to become more and more routine. During this flight 3 different crews will be on or around the Moon. The crew of Orion 29/Altair 15 is currently finishing up their tasks at the Lunar Outpost and is beginning preparations for crew handover. Meanwhile Orion 30 is continuing their stay in Lunar orbit testing MTV hardware. This mission will be different however, this flight will begin testing new flight hardware. Sometime after the end of the Shuttle program the production of the shuttle boosters and their 5 segment derivatives eventually stopped. Beginning of new manufacturing had to be done in order to keep producing boosters for the Constellation program, as such, this mission will introduce the new set of boosters. Ares I and Ares V will begin using BOLE (Booster Obsolescence and Life Extension), a new 5 segment booster using composite casing along with a variety of other improvements and streamlined manufacturing techniques. This new booster will give the rockets a slight payload increase and is in theory more reliable, however more importantly it will ensure the program will have a continued supply of boosters.

Alongside this set of new boosters the engine mount has received new thermal blanketing around the RS-68K engines. It ensures their protection from heat during flight while improving the look of the mount.

Also improved is the engine mount section of the EDS, now it is more inline with how it was intended to look with the adapter section.

Ares I has received significant changes, the rocket is almost entirely new. From using BOLE to the smoother looking interstage, alongside the entirely new upper stage using tankage from the upcoming mod ORANGES. 

From here everything is entirely routine. This is also one of my favorite shots I've ever taken.

MMSEV 1 picks up the crew of Altair 16.

Crew of Altair 15 on the left with Altair 16 on the right, this is a rare opportunity to showcase a crew of 8 on the Lunar surface.

 

A shorter post for today, I mostly wanted to showcase the new and improved Ares I and Ares V vehicles, they've evolved significantly over the past few years and barely resemble their original interpretations. This will likely be the last Lunar flight that I showcase for some time. Much in the same way I've been skipping over Orion flights to the ISS, I will likely begin doing the same for the Moon, the Lunar Outpost won't continue to grow and flights are continuing to become routine. With that in mind I will begin to focus much more on the important stuff that many of y'all have been waiting for. As always, stay tuned!
 

[Jay The Amazing Toaster]

Asteroid Survey Mission Part 1: ASV Construction, Late 2027 - Early 2028

The set of missions showcased today have been years in the making and will arguably be the most ambitious ever conducted. The goal is a simple one in its conception, construct an Asteroid Survey Vehicle and take crew to Asteroid 2000 SG₃₄₄ in heliocentric orbit. While simple in concept, it will be quite complex and requires demonstration of technologies and techniques never attempted before in space. These missions will contain many firsts for spaceflight, first usage of nuclear engines in space, first usage of Automated Rendezvous and Docking, first full automated construction of a vehicle in space, first usage of drop tanks in space, and most importantly, first time living beings will leave the Earth-Moon system, land on a celestial body, and return safely. The images will speak for themselves.



A longer fairing had to be constructed to launch the propulsion element of the ASV.

The ASV propulsion element has finally reached space, the vehicle sports 3 nuclear engines running on LH2.

The propulsion element awaits in space for the two other parts of the vehicle.

The second launch today will be for the ASV drop tank section. The tank will be ejected after completing the Earth escape burn. The structure of this drop tank is unique in its design as it still leaves behind the truss structure once the tank is decoupled.

The drop tank remains attached to the EDS while in orbit while it awaits the propulsion element to arrive.

This will be the first docking of its kind, utilizing Automated Rendezvous and Docking technology, these two vehicles will dock completely uncrewed, only assisted and supervised by mission control on the ground.

The last launch will be of the habitation section, crew will stay in here for about a year before returning to the Earth. The name of this vehicle is Search Lite. It's quite similar to Gateway and future MTV habitation elements, however the contingency consumables section will be replaced with another element. 

As alluded to earlier, the contingency consumables container is replaced with an orbital MMSEV.

Like the previous launch, this will dock entirely autonomously, however this time the habitat will be the active portion.

At last, after three Ares V launches spanning several months, construction of the Asteroid Survey Vehicle Search Lite is complete. All that awaits is Orion 35 to launch and meet the ASV in orbit, the most ambitious crewed mission ever conducted to this point.

Orion 35 waits on the pad, to be continued in Part 2.

Three years ago today I began this thread in an attempt to showcase the alternate future that I thought would be possible if the Constellation program had gone as planned. In many ways it is very optimistic, for things to have come to this point, pretty much everything would've had to go NASA's way in order to get this far. I also incorporated some aspects of our timeline into this one such as Orion's docking system, it's reflective look, the incorporation of BOLE in the late 2020s, and more details I can't even think of. I had no idea when I started it that it would take this long but I am happy how it has shaped up to this point. The game has become far more visually appealing now than it was three years ago and some of the best screenshots that I've taken have been mostly the recent ones. However we're not done yet, we still have many missions ahead of us still. As always, I hope you stay tuned to it's conclusion.

[Royalswissarmyknife]

ORANGES makes the Ares look SOOO good 

[KerballingSmasher]

Wow... crazy to think that this thread's been around for so long! Kudos for sticking with it, and I can't wait to see where it goes from here! 

[guest10985]

what does "PO2" on Search lite stand for?

[Jay The Amazing Toaster]

Asteroid Survey Mission Part 2: Exploration of Asteroid 2000 SG344 - 2028

As alluded to in the prior entry, this will be the first attempt to send crew beyond the gravitational pull of the Earth. Orion 35 will launch and rendezvous with the Asteroid Survey Vehicle in LEO and will perform checkouts on the vehicle before leaving. They will then rendezvous with Asteroid SG₃₄₄ in Solar orbit. Much like the previous post, the images will mostly speak for themselves.

Orion performs several fly-arounds to check the vehicle's condition before docking. This is the first time crew has been sent to the ASV as the construction was fully automated.

With the Orion fully docked, the crewmates can perform the tasks necessary to get the vehicle online. First is deploying the 4 solar arrays and second is inflating the crew habitat both of which are performed successfully.

One of the crew members performs an EVA to get a closer look at the outside of the vehicle. All systems look good and they are ready for departure.

The first of the two burns necessary to leave LEO, all 3 nuclear engines look good and they are ready for the second burn.

After the second burn is complete, preparations begin to ditch the drop tank. This aspect of the vehicle is meant to be discarded entirely in order to lower dry mass on the vehicle.

After drop tank separation the vehicle can begin to coast to its destination.

Here from this vantage point, the crew of Orion 35 will be the first crew to leave the Earth's sphere of influence. Beyond this point, if there is an emergency situation the crew will need to take several weeks to return to Earth.

The crew begins the breaking burn to slow themselves down. The tiny dot on the right is the asteroid itself.

Finally after several weeks of drifting through endless nothingness, crew arrives at Asteroid SG₃₄₄  the crew will begin station keeping procedures to keep Search Lite within a close distance to the asteroid. Two out of the four crew will enter an orbital variant of the MMSEV and attach itself to the asteroid.

First crewed landing on an object beyond the Earth-Moon system is a success. Some time

A short EVA is performed and some samples are taken.

The POV of the ASV observing the asteroid and MMSEV.

After some time, the MMSEV departs and returns to the ASV.  After a few months of staying close to the asteroid, crew will depart and return to the Earth.

Orion separates from Search Lite and begins preparations to reenter the Earth's atmosphere.

A breaking burn is conducted to slow down Orion to Lunar reentry speeds. This will reduce g loads and heating on the capsule.

The crew make a safe reentry into the atmosphere, Orion proving itself a reliable vehicle once again.

High above, Seach Lite conducts a breaking burn to return itself into LEO. Here it will be able to conduct possible future Asteroid missions or even Lunar ones.

Today the MTV architecture has proven itself. It showed itself capable of carrying crew far beyond the Earth and was capable of returning them safely. Preparations can now begin to push it far beyond local asteroids, it will finally fulfill the decades long dream of bringing crew to Mars.

 

That's it! Took a little while but we're not that far away from finally getting a Mars mission in this series. While KSP2 has finally released yesterday, I fully intend to finish this series in KSP1 for the time being. There's not much to say beyond this so I hope you stay tuned for the lead up to Mars!

[Tellurium128]

Have been following this thread for a long time already...

Very nice work...Constellation is the best architecture ever(for now)

Where did you get constellation flags?

[yourboi]

Cant wait till the next post.Wish all this had happend.

[guest10985]

Is the project canceled?