Arcturus Program - To the Mun, Minmus, and beyond [JNSQ]

DylanSemrau · February 6, 2020

Introduction

The Arcturus Program is simple. The goal is to establish a presence on the Mun and Minmus, and test the technologies necessary to conduct a Duna mission.

The program will be separated into 5 phases.

-Phase one involves establishing a basic space station in munar orbit, sending a single module, and then sending the Rio lander to dock with it.

-Phase two involves establishing a presence on the Mun. ISRU, both in orbit and on the ground, will make landings much easier, more cost effective, and quicker than ever before.

-Phase two involves establishing a presence on Minmus. This will likely only involve a ground base with ISRU and habitation, but nonetheless will be essential to the program's goals.

-Phase three will involve testing the systems that will be used for Duna missions. These missions will be unmanned, but will be almost identical to the manned ones that will follow.

-Phase four will involve landing kerbals on Duna, and returning them safely. After this is demonstrated, ISRU will be set up on the ground, and in orbit to enable refueling, and more flexible missions.

-Phase five will involve exploration of the outer solar system. I haven't really thought about this one yet :blush:

DylanSemrau · February 6, 2020

Chapter One - Arcturus I

After over a decade of development, planning, and *shudders* politics, the first Arcturus mission is ready to go. This demonstration flight will show that the Jupiter-I is capable of yeeting the Europa Spacecraft at the Mun. And of course, because I hate my lads, this very first mission is manned.

So mayyybe I forgot parachutes? eh who cares? They're obviously trained for this. :wink:

After this perfect demonstration flight (of which no demonstration flight will ever be able to top in perfectness), the first module of the Stephen Hawking Space Station was prepared, and launched to the Mun. This module is simply some habitation, propulsion, and a number of docking ports for docking and expansion. This mission was dubbed "HEM-1", with HEM standing for Hawking Expansion Mission.

After the successful launch of HEM-1, HEM-2 can be launched, which will involve the rendezvous and docking of the first Rio lander to the station.

DylanSemrau · February 8, 2020

Chapter 2 - The First Steps

With the successful delivery of the Hawking Space Station to Munar orbit, expansion can begin. The first step is to enable landings on the Mun. This mission, designated HEM-2, will send a small, basic lander to dock with the station until crew arrives. This lander will consist of two stages, the first stage (referred to as the Reusable Lander Transportation Stage, or RLTS) will lower the orbit to ~8km above the surface, and then the second stage carrying crew will land on the surface, then return to a low orbit to rendezvous and re-dock with the RLTS, which will then transport it back to the station for refueling. This system is designed to be as reusable as possible, so instead of needing to launch a new lander for every landing, you can use the same one multiple times. This means that landings are not only cheaper, much it also means they can happen much more often.

Now, with the successful rendezvous and docking, a crew can be sent to get the station running properly, and to test the new Rio lander system. The Arcturus 2 mission will send this crew, and they'll be the first since the Bizmuth-8 disaster to attempt a Mun landing. This holds great importance to Kerbin, all eyes are on the KSC for this mission.

After a good docking, the crew had some issue opening the hatch. After about 4 hours of troubleshooting, they finally managed to get it opened. The issue, although not significant, sent fear through the KSC. It's a high risk mission, and if they can't even get a door open, how are they sure they can manage a landing? After some discussion, the mission was given a go, and Val and Bob opened the hatch to the lander.

After about 20 grueling minutes, both Kerbals made it onto the surface alive. They had a few hours to rest before going back to work. The two had to run some systems tests to ensure that the vehicle hadn't been damaged during descent, and that the lander would be good for heading back to orbit. They also had to run a few experiments inside of the lander while it was still pressurized. After about 5 hours, both were ready to head outside. For the first time in 28 years, a Kerbal would touch the surface of the closest light in the sky, and for the first time in 28 years, the world stopped.

The two didn't have much to do on the surface itself. The KSC feared that if they stayed too long, an issue with the new, untested lander and suits would be more likely to come up. Instead, they would take samples, plant a flag, take pictures, and get back on board to return to orbit. The KSC also wanted to prove that the lander stage could return to the station without the help from the RLTS. Although they did manage, the margins were tight, and it didn't exactly calm concerns that the spacecraft could run into issues that it simply couldn't recover from.

After docking, the crew would quickly move the gathered samples into the station, and return to the Europa Spacecraft to come back home. And yes, I still forgot to put on parachutes.

(Also please let me know, what do you think of the length of this post? Too long? Just right?)

Angelo Kerman · February 8, 2020

Just right! I also love the RTLS acronym.

AlphaMensae · February 8, 2020

These are incredible! Just right too.

I notice that your space programs are fond of using shuttle infrastructure for non-shuttles.

DylanSemrau · February 8, 2020

7 minutes ago, AlphaMensae said:

I notice that your space programs are fond of using shuttle infrastructure for non-shuttles.

That's just cuz the manz that made those parts did such a good job

DylanSemrau · February 9, 2020

Chapter 3 - History

34 Years Ago:

The promise was simple. Land on the Mun, build up a colony, begin the great journey into the final frontier. The Bizmuth Program was the biggest undertaking the KSP had faced. Not only were they tasked with building the largest, most powerful rocket ever built, but they were tasked with building one capable of colonizing the Mun. The budget was big, but they were only given a measly 8 years to get the project going. Although they could get it done, it would mean cutting corners, resulting in a fairly incomplete product. Nonetheless, Bizmuth-1 and it's 3 member crew were prepared for launch, and moved to the pad for what was about to become the most daring mission in history.

After the successful touchdown, the crew immediately went to work and moved outside. Their goal was to inspect the condition of the spacecraft, begin collecting samples for return and analysis, and study the general features of the surface. They were also tasked with finding out just how different the environment was to live in. How easily could they walk, run, jump, crouch? How easily could they eat, drink, (the thing that comes after that...)? All of this would be crucial for planning future bases on the surface. After about 12 hours on the surface, the crew got back on board, and prepared to return home.

After a successful splashdown, the most important mission in KSC history was complete. Bizmuth-2 was given the go ahead to move forward, and production started on Bizmuth-3. Things were looking good for the program. Many felt that at this rate they'd find themselves booking trips to Duna, or relaxing at their personal space station in orbit around Eve within the next decade or two. However, history tells a different story.

So yeah, there's lore here. What, did you think I wouldn't dive straight into the Bizmuth program that I mentioned in chapter 2?

BowmanA081 · February 11, 2020

A Nova-type direct lander, huh?

DylanSemrau · February 11, 2020

1 hour ago, BowmanA081 said:

A Nova-type direct lander, huh?

Yup, I thought something big and bold was necessary for that part of the story.

SiriusRocketry · February 12, 2020

What modlist/version are you running? Looks stunning!

DylanSemrau · February 23, 2020

Chapter 4 - A New Candle

(very long post but oh well)

As the KSC continues with the Arcturus Program, they need to accomplish a number of goals to further understand the surface of the Mun, Minmus and Duna. In order to accomplish these goals, they called upon commercial partners for their help building and launching the missions. Specifically this new contract would require a flexible launch vehicle that could launch medium or heavy sized payloads to Kerbin orbit, or small to medium sized payloads to other planetary bodies. In the end, Photon Rocketry Corporation was awarded the contract to develop their Eris Rocket. The new vehicle would utilize a number of new and old technologies, including brand new, and quite powerful, first stage engine, and old upper stage engines and solid boosters. The first launch would be in the Eris Heavy configuration, which utilizes two black solid motors derived from the Prometheus program, and a large upper stage using 2-4 hydrolox CE-60 engines.

All went well until the second stage burn. Towards the end of the burn one of the CE-60 engines experienced a sharp rise of pressure in the combustion chamber, and was subsequently shut down by the on-board computers. This caused the vehicle to have asymmetrical thrust, which could not be fixed by the other engine's gimbal, putting the stage in a spin, and causing the other engine to be shut down. Although it was close, the vehicle did not make orbit and burned up in the atmosphere. Since the primary objectives set by the KSC included making orbit, and proving engine relight capability, another launch was immediately planned, and an investigation into the engine failure would begin. They decided to take advantage of the second launch to demonstrate the Eris Heavy Plus configuration, which replaced the solid motors with two more liquid cores.

After successfully placing the dummy payload into LKO, the new CE-10A engines performed their second burn to place it in near GTO. They would later restart a second time at apogee to deorbit. The first stage performed well enough in these two launches for the KSC to be comfortable with launching two new spacecraft on the medium configuration, which uses the same core, and a smaller Inon upper stage, derived from the Bossart LV. This configuration can also use between 1 and 6 smaller solid motors for extra flexibility. The first of these would launch a small lunar lander to the mun's south pole, as there was evidence of water, among an abundance of other resources. This is a mission that had never been done before, so if successful, it would be a significant step forward.

With another major success, the KSC now begins preparations to build a Duna mission. This will utilize the same launch vehicle, and a lander derived from the one above. This time they wanted to test a new type of heat shield, which could see use on future manned missions to the red planet. This inflatable heat shield can save loads of space, which also means saving money.