Hatsunese Space Program - HASDA (Japan-like) | 1989-03-12 | Saki-09, first Phobos/Deimos landings

[MotokiKuN]

20 hours ago, Pipcard said:

Federal Republic of Shion

Space KAITO!

[Pipcard]

56 minutes ago, MotokiKuN said:

Space KAITO!

Not really his canon name, but sure.

[Pipcard]

Phase 3 - 05

1979-11-05 -  In the last major launch of the 1970s, HASDA took advantage of a rare opportunity (once every 175 years) to send a spacecraft to Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune. After the M-2 rocket had been proven over two years, Watarimono-2 ("Wanderer-2") or PLANET-G was launched by an M-2-34 rocket early in the morning. From low Earth orbit, the kerolox second stage burned its remaining fuel for about 15 seconds, then the "Hakuba" hydrolox third stage burned for over 7 minutes, boosting the spacecraft's velocity by over 7200 m/s. This would put it on a course to visit Jupiter in May 1981 (concurrent with Watarimono visiting Saturn), Uranus in January 1986, and Neptune in August 1989. The Uranus and Neptune encounters would occur slightly before the arrivals of NASA's Voyager 2, which was launched two years earlier. Afterwards, it would continue into interstellar space. Watarimono-2 had a large 4-meter high-gain antenna transmitting in the X-band frequency (8-12 GHz) to be able to send lots of data from 4 to 5 billion kilometers from Earth, and was powered by two multi-hundred-watt radioisotope thermoelectric generators (MHW-RTGs).

(A course correction would be needed later to reduce the distance to Neptune)

 

 

 

Maneuver plan

 

 

 

 

Edited May 30, 2021 by Pipcard

[USKnight]

Godspeed, Watarimonos. 'Nuff said.

HASDA is really showing its skills now. Beating the Americans to the punch, even.

[Pipcard]

Phase 3 - 06

1980-03-24 - An M-2-20 launched Saki-01, Hatsunia's next-generation crewed spacecraft, named after the tallest mountain in the country. This would be the final flight of the three "Rocket Women," Yuzuki Morita, Marumi Nabatame, and Akari Miura, who were now in their 30s and ready to pass the torch to the next generation of astronauts. Unlike NASA, which was going to launch a large reusable spaceplane (with expendable tank and boosters) known as the Space Shuttle next year, HASDA chose a smaller, disposable capsule design like Apollo to reduce development cost and time. During the launch, 2 out of 5 first stage engines and 1 out of 3 second stage engines were cut off later in the burn period to prevent the acceleration from exceeding 4 Gs [1] . Saki-01 was in the "minimum system" configuration, consisting only of a Core Module (flat capsule to reduce deceleration forces during reentry to 2.4 Gs) and a small Service Module (with fuel cells, RCS thrusters, and propellant for maneuvers). The life support systems were meant to support 3 people for 24 hours in orbit. The living room was larger than that of Utahime, but it was still a tight space. Re-entry and splashdown occurred in southwestern Hatsunia on the next day. The Saki "standard system," to be launched later in the decade, would add an additional Expansion Module and Propulsion Module for longer-term stays in orbit.

[1] Using kOS scripts (for the first time) to disable engines (and jettison the launch escape system) using action groups

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 4, 2021 by Pipcard

[Pipcard]

Phase 3 - 07

1980-07-02 - An M-1B rocket launched Usagi-11, the fourth lunar lander probe. Its destination was the southern rim of Tycho crater, to analyze the composition of regolith just outside the main impact zone (similarly to the Surveyor 7 mission). It was at a higher latitude compared to previous missions (45 degrees south), so sunlight was hitting the vehicle at a lower angle and power had to be conserved more often. Anorthosites with high levels of aluminium were detected.

 

Spoiler

 

 

1980-10-12 - An M-2-20 rocket launched the Advanced Marine Investigation and Ground Observation Satellite (AMIGOS), which was nicknamed Aomidori (blue-green), to a sun-synchronous orbit almost 800 kilometers above Earth. It was used to take imagery and collect data of Earth for civilian purposes such as farming, land-use planning, fishing, environmental protection, and climate research, to make sure that Earth's natural resources were being used wisely. To do this, it used an near-infrared imaging spectrometer to measure differences in surface temperature, and a new type of small optical camera to take many high-resolution images of forests, urban areas, etc. all over the globe for public and private use.

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

Edited June 11, 2021 by Pipcard

[Philae_Rosetta2021]

Oh dear, do I sense an Insight Lander-esque loss of power?

Only time will tell... (Good luck Usagi-11!)

[Pipcard]

Phase 3 - 08

1981-02-14 - After the retirement of the original three "Rocket Women," Saki-02 launched with the first of a new generation of Hatsunese astronauts: Hitomi Kuriyama, Haruyoshi Yasukawa, and Tomohiro Sasaki. The latter two were the first male astronauts in Hatsunia. They also spent 24 hours in orbit before returning east of Negishima.

Spoiler

1981-05-28 - Watarimono-2 passed by Jupiter on its way to Uranus and Neptune, which would be reached in 1986 and 1989, respectively. It arrived in its massive sphere of influence on 1981-04-11. It could take pictures of Jupiter and its moons in greater detail compared to its predecessor, such as the swirling storm clouds in Jupiter's atmosphere, as well as the thin ring surrounding the planet. However, the trajectory and closest approach had to be farther away, passing as close as the orbit of Europa. Continuing observations made by Voyager 1 and 2 two years earlier, it saw the battered surface of Callisto, the grooved terrain Ganymede, the streaked icy surface of Europa, and volcanic activity on Io from far away.

Spoiler

1981-05-30 - At around the same time as its successor's flyby of Jupiter, Watarimono flew by Saturn, having arrived in the sphere of influence on 1981-03-20. It observed Saturn, its prominent ring system of small particles, and its magnetic field, but was only able to do so with a resolution similar to the Pioneer 11 probe which reached Saturn two years ago. It also zoomed by the moon of Mimas for a few seconds. However, it was not able to see its most famous feature (discovered a year earlier by Voyager 1), Herschel Crater, from up close as it was on the night side.

Saturn would be the final planetary destination for Watarimono almost 6 years after launch, but it would not reach interstellar space because it passed in front of Saturn's path around the Sun, thus reducing its velocity. Instead, it would go into a highly-inclined (almost-polar) elliptical heliocentric orbit which would return to a distance between Earth and Venus in 1987. From there, it could measure the Sun's magnetic field from a new perspective.

Mimas encounter

Spoiler

Heliocentric orbit after Saturn flyby

 

Edited July 13, 2022 by Pipcard

[Pipcard]

Phase 3 - 09

1981-11-29 - An M-2-32 rocket launched the MELODI (Mars Exploration with Lander-Orbiter Data Interactions, a.k.a. PLANET-H) spacecraft.  Similar to the Viking spacecraft, the vehicle consisted of a orbiter with solar panels and a lander component powered by RTGs. After entering an elliptical Mars orbit in September 1982, MELODI would observe potential landing sites and wait for the right conditions, then release the lander which would enter Mars's atmosphere in a protective aeroshell (similar to the fairing for the Saki crewed spacecraft) which would deploy parachutes and be jettisoned before a propulsive landing.

Spoiler

 

1982-01-04 - The Jupiter orbiter "Mokume" (PLANET-I) was launched by an M-2-34 rocket. Its name meant "wood grain" in reference to Jupiter's Hatsunese name, Mokusei (木星 or "wood star," another one of the Chinese five elements), and the fact that Jupiter's swirling clouds as observed by the Watarimono probes coincidentally resembled a wood grain. Its literal meaning of "wood eye" (木目) also represented the probe's mission to observe Jupiter and its moons. Unlike the Galileo spacecraft which NASA would launch later, Mokume did not carry an atmospheric probe and was thus lighter, being able to launch directly to Jupiter using the M-2 rocket and its Hakuba hydrolox upper stage. Mokume would enter Jupiter orbit in July 1984. In some aspects, Hatsunia was starting to pull ahead in the space race.

Spoiler

 

 

Edited June 27, 2021 by Pipcard

[Pipcard]

Phase 3 - 10

1982-04-26 - An M-2-20 rocket launched Saki-03 with Tomohiro Sasaki, Kosuke Kokubun, and Yayoi Mimura. The latter two were new astronauts.

 

Spoiler

 

1982-08-07 - Usagi-12 was launched by an M-1B rocket to the bright lunar crater of Copernicus, which is thought to have formed relatively recently (800 million years ago) compared to the 4-billion-year age of the Moon.

Spoiler

 

1982-09-17 - MELODI (Mars Exploration with Lander-Orbiter Data Interactions) performed an insertion burn to enter an elliptical polar orbit (approximately 300 km x 30000 km) around Mars. The orbiter observed Mars for over two weeks before making a small de-orbit maneuver on 1982-10-05, releasing the lander in its aeroshell, then returning back to orbit. The lander itself entered the atmosphere of Mars and was slowed down by the 4-meter-wide shield without excessive heating. At a speed of about 300 m/s, the aeroshell and lander separated from the heat shield using small retrorockets (slightly imbalanced to prevent the shield from coming back and colliding). Parachutes deployed 12 to 6 km above the surface, but it was still traveling at about 50 m/s.

After the landing legs (which had triple symmetry like the Viking landers) were deployed, the lander dropped from its aeroshell to peform a soft propulsive landing. The landing site was in Amazonis Planitia, a flat region northwest of Olympus Mons that formed with volcanic activity about 100 million years ago. The camera took high-quality images of the surface, while a gas chromatograph mass spectrometer and a sample digging apparatus measured the composition of the Martian regolith, mostly made of silicon, oxygen, and iron. No organic compounds were detected. Data was relayed to the orbiter, which could transmit back to Earth using its larger antenna.

 

Spoiler

Mars orbit insertion

De-orbit

 

 

Edited June 30, 2021 by Pipcard

[Pipcard]

(Sorry for the wait, I took a break to play other games like Project Wingman and the Halo MCC, and to take care of other stuff as well. I was thinking of waiting to get a new PC since it's sluggish when making videos, and I have to go through this lengthy process to have an okay framerate, but I decided to upgrade my PC's RAM instead as a stopgap measure since these mods use a lot of it.)

Phase 3 - 11

1983-01-28 - Saki-04, the final flight of the Saki minimum system (before the launch of the standard system next year), with Haruyoshi Yasukawa, Kikuo Kanezawa, and Motoko Katagami.

Spoiler

1983-06-07 - Akatsuki-3 (PLANET-J) was launched by a M-2 32 rocket to orbit Venus and deploy a lander, similar to the Soviet Union's Venera program. It also had a similar mass and engine configuration to the MELODI Mars probe. On 1983-10-30, almost five months later, the spacecraft entered an inclined retrograde elliptical orbit around Venus (500 km x 20000 km), such that the periapsis (low point) was on the day side. At the apoapsis (high point) of the orbit, the spacecraft performed a de-orbit maneuver to lower the periapsis to 100 km before releasing the aeroshell containing the lander. Afterwards, the orbiter raised its periapsis to 3000 km to be able to act as a relay with line-of-sight communications with Earth as the lander descended.

Because of Venus's thick atmosphere, a more sturdy heat shield was needed to withstand entry. About 70 km above the surface, the lander was released from the aeroshell and fell at about 100 m/s through the increasingly thick atmosphere. Parachutes, made of kevlar to withstand the heat, deployed a few kilometers above the surface before the lander touched down in Themis Regio at around 4 m/s. The lander was spherical to reduce structural weak points in a place with high pressure differentials, and was surrounded by smaller spherical landing supports. It took images and samples of the volcanic regolith, and recorded the sounds of the wind as well. After approximately an hour, the lander succumbed to the harsh pressure, heat, and corrosion of the Venusian atmosphere [not simulated in KSP].

 

 

 

Venus orbit insertion

De-orbit

Lander aeroshell released

 

Lander uncovered

Only small parachutes were needed due to the dense atmosphere

Landed

The orbiter relaying data from the surface

 

 

Edited October 22, 2021 by Pipcard

[Pipcard]

Phase 3 - 12

1984-03-15 - Usagi-13, Hatsunia's first lunar rover, launched on an M-2 30 rocket. The ~300 kg rover was equipped with similar instruments to previous Usagi landers, but with a more advanced camera, and on a six-wheeled vehicle with the same solar panels. It was carried to the surface by a lander (total mass of 3 tonnes) with folding ramps (Infernal Robotics mod) and seven engines, with a flat and wide shape to reduce the slope of the deployed ramps. Landing occurred in 1984-03-19 (local time) in Sinus Medii, near the sites where Surveyor 4 crashed and Surveyor 6 landed, and where Earth can be seen directly overhead from the Moon's tidal lock. Final descent used two out of seven engines. The rover drove for over 4 kilometers to different sites of interest, taking images and analyzing lunar soil composition.

 

Spoiler

Launch

 

 

Entering lunar orbit
 

 

De-orbit and landing
 

 

 

Ramps deployed
 

 

 

Driving away

 

 

 

Edited October 27, 2021 by Pipcard

[Jeb1969]

These new missions are so exciting, especially the Venus Lander, everything looks awesome except for that camera protruding outwards hopefully it has been engineered so that some of the instrumentation does not analyze the lens cap by mistake.  No joke the Soviets in real life sent one of their Venera Landers to Venus and they deployed the camera only to find out that the lens cap had landed underneath the spacecraft below a critical instrument, so instead of testing the properties of the surface of Venus they were testing the properties of the lens cap.  Hopefully you have been able to one up The Ivans and teach them in the art of situational awareness. 

Edited October 30, 2021 by Jeb1969

[Pipcard]

Phase 3 - 13

1984-07-16 - Mokume arrived at Jupiter, performing a 600 m/s orbital insertion burn 138000 km away, and readying itself for long-term observations of the planet's atmosphere (the ammonia cloud tops resembling a wood grain), magnetic field, and many moons. The initial orbit was highly eccentric and approximately six months long. A inclination change maneuver would be performed at the highest point of said orbit (on 1984-10-14) to set up a rendezvous with Ganymede, the largest moon in the Solar System, on 1985-01-09. A gravitational assist from Ganymede would slow down the spacecraft relative to Jupiter, halving the orbital period to about 3 months. HASDA having a clear and undisputed first in planetary exploration pressured NASA to split the Galileo mission in two, launching an orbiter (shrunk down from the original plans) and an atmospheric entry probe in February and March of 1984, respectively.

 

 

 

1984-04-23 - entered Jupiter's gravitational sphere of influence

Less than a day away from orbital insertion

Europa (top left) and Io (bottom left) can also be seen

In orbit

Trajectory and course corrections to Ganymede

 

 

 

 

Edited October 31, 2021 by Pipcard

[Hypersonic Was Taken Again]

@PipcardI have a proposition for you. I was planning on making a mockumentary on the history of Hatsunia, and I wanted your approval before I continued. So what do you say?

[Pipcard]

2 hours ago, Hypersonic Was Taken Again said:

@PipcardI have a proposition for you. I was planning on making a mockumentary on the history of Hatsunia, and I wanted your approval before I continued. So what do you say?

Actually, I'm not really sure about that. I'm worried about other people misrepresenting this (semi-serious) worldbuilding project. Some people see "a Miku-themed Japan-like country" and think it's nothing else but a joke or a meme, but I wanted it to be more than that.

Edited November 1, 2021 by Pipcard

[Hypersonic Was Taken Again]

@Pipcardit can be represented however you like it. It is yours, after all

Edited November 1, 2021 by Hypersonic Was Taken Again
Quote was unnecessary

[Hypersonic Was Taken Again]

8 hours ago, Pipcard said:

Actually, I'm not really sure about that. I'm worried about other people misrepresenting this (semi-serious) worldbuilding project. Some people see "a Miku-themed Japan-like country" and think it's nothing else but a joke or a meme, but I wanted it to be more than that.

If your goal is to represent it semi-seriously, then my team and I can accomplish that.

[Pipcard]

7 minutes ago, Hypersonic Was Taken Again said:

If your goal is to represent it semi-seriously, then my team and I can accomplish that.

I'd rather have no separate parties involved for now.

Also, I still have to fill in the gap between how HASDA is in the 1980s and how it is today.

Edited November 1, 2021 by Pipcard

[Hypersonic Was Taken Again]

20 minutes ago, Pipcard said:

I'd rather have no separate parties involved for now.

Also, I still have to fill in the gap between how HASDA is in the 1980s and how it is today.

I completely understand, but if you ever change your mind, hit me up.

[Pipcard]

Phase 3 - 14

1984-10-19 - Saki-05 launched on an M-2-24 rocket, with Hitomi Kuriyama, Momoka Oda, and Mitsuharu Haneda. This was the first use of the "standard system" configuration, which added a disposable Expansion Module and Propulsion Module to the relatively cramped Core Module, and had a total mass of approximately 11 tonnes. The Expansion Module added more living space (which didn't need to be protected for re-entry, thus saving mass) as well as a toilet, and enough food, water, and oxygen for crews to last a few weeks in space. The Propulsion Module was designed for almost 400 m/s of maneuvers in Low Earth Orbit, powered by a 13.9 kN hypergolic engine. The Core and Propulsion Modules launched on top of the Expansion Module, to reduce the mass of the emergency launch escape system. Once in orbit, the Core and Propulsion Modules detached, rotated, and docked with the Expansion Module, similarly to the transposition, docking, and extraction sequence of the Apollo missions. Afterwards, Saki-05 demonstrated its propulsive capabilities by raising its orbit from 200 km to 310 km, waiting two days, then going to an apogee of over 480 km. The mission would ultimately last 7 days before de-orbit, separation, re-entry, and splashdown of the Core Module.

The Soviet space program noticed that the 11-tonne Saki standard system was larger and offered more living space than their 7-tonne Soyuz. Development of the Buran spaceplane and Energia super-heavy booster were thus accelerated to match the capabilities of the US Space Shuttle program.

 

Launch

Launch escape system and fairing separation

Second stage

Transposition, docking, and extraction

Going to 309 km

1984-10-21 - Orbit raise to ~480 x 310 km

1984-10-26 - De-orbit, separation, re-entry, and splashdown

 

 

Edited November 7, 2021 by Pipcard

[Vagrant203]

Are the expansion modules left in orbit or torched by reentry?

EDIT: If they were left in orbit, they could be reused and maybe even gathered and docked to a hub.

Edited November 8, 2021 by Vagrant203

[Pipcard]

16 hours ago, Vagrant203 said:

Are the expansion modules left in orbit or torched by reentry?

EDIT: If they were left in orbit, they could be reused and maybe even gathered and docked to a hub.

In this case, they were disposed of, but maybe later they could be reused to form a space station. It would just have narrow docking ports (like Russian space stations), so you wouldn't have something like the US/European/Japanese side of the ISS in our universe, with wide berthing ports, so any experiment or equipment racks would have to be smaller (interchangeable) or pre-installed (non-interchangeable). Also, as more modules are added to the station, it becomes more crucial for resupply ships to carry any waste/garbage away (this was a big problem with the Russian Mir station and Soyuz/Progress, but a Saki-derived uncrewed resupply ship could have more room).

In fact, there's a concept image for the Fuji spacecraft that shows a station made out of Expansion Modules in the upper left corner. I don't know if I will make a station as big as that (due to frame rate issues), but there are plans to have a Saki-derived space station over the next decade.

Edited November 9, 2021 by Pipcard

[Pipcard]

Phase 3 - 15

1985-01-09 - Mokume flew by Ganymede, the largest moon of Jupiter and the Solar System (and third Galilean moon by distance from Jupiter), being bigger than the planet Mercury. The surface was composed of darker, older cratered regions and lighter, relatively younger regions of grooves and ridges. It was the only moon that had its own magnetic field, inferring that it had an active iron core. A gravitational assist slowed the spacecraft, reducing its orbital period around Jupiter from approximately 6 months to 2.5 months.

[in our universe, Japan just launched its first spacecraft to interplanetary space]

Spoiler

1985-03-02 - Stargazer, Hatsunia's large optical space telescope, was lifted to a 539 km orbit by an M-2-24 rocket. It has been theorized to be similar to technology used on the classified IGS-A reconnaissance satellite series, but aimed up at the sky and used for civilian astronomical purposes instead. The 3-meter diameter mirror, free from atmospheric disturbances, provided stunning views of planets, stars, nebulae, and distant galaxies, and helped gain insight into the 13.7-billion-year age and expansion of the universe.

Spoiler

1985-06-11 - After a second (and more distant) flyby of Ganymede on 1985-03-29, Mokume flew past Europa, the smallest of the four Galilean moons (and second Galilean moon by distance). The icy surface was smooth and covered in many cracks but few craters, indicating that tidal forces from Jupiter and its other major moons were actively reshaping Europa's surface and heating up the interior to form a subsurface ocean, leading to speculation about whether life could exist there similarly to life near hydrothermal vents on Earth's ocean floor. Similar oceans have also been thought to exist inside Ganymede and Callisto.

Spoiler

1985-08-18 - Mokume flew by Callisto, the farthest Galilean moon from Jupiter (and second largest). Its surface is composed of a mixture of rock and ice, heavily bombarded with craters that have mostly remained unchanged over its 4-billion-year history, as it is too far away to be affected by tidal heating. This time, the gravitational assist sped up and raised the spacecraft's orbit around Jupiter. It would encounter the remaining Galilean moon, Io, in a few months.

Spoiler

Edited November 14, 2021 by Pipcard

[Pipcard]

Phase 3 - 16

1985-08-18 - As Mokume was visiting Callisto, an M-1B rocket was preparing to launch the "Houki" (PLANET-K) probe to Halley's Comet, which had a highly elliptical orbit that came into the inner Solar System once every 76 years. Major space agencies around the world took advantage of this rare opportunity by sending an armada of probes to the comet. Houki was named for the broom (帚)-like shape of comets as perceived in China and Hatsunia, but was also phonetically the same as the characters meaning "treasured device" (宝器). It would arrive at Halley's Comet in the spring of 1986.

(note: Halley's Comet is from the Real Expansion mod. The orbit is inaccurate by one month, so the probe should arrive in March, not April.)

Spoiler

1985-09-04 - Saki-06 launched with Tomohiro Sasaki, Erika Ichihara, and Asao Nakamatsu to spend 14 days in a 339 km orbit, matching the duration record of the US Gemini program, except with more room for astronauts to eat, sleep,  and do research on the effects of living in space.

Spoiler

1985-11-18 - Mokume flew by Io, the innermost of Jupiter's Galilean moons. Due to tidal heating and flexing from Jupiter and its other moons, Io's surface is filled with constant volcanic activity, and a coating of sulfur and sulfur dioxide. Io's orbit was located at the same distance as an intense toroidal radiation belt around Jupiter, so there was a risk of the electronics being damaged, but Mokume's orbit crossed it in such a way as to pass over, go through the hole, and under the toroidal region as it met Io. Mokume would continue to orbit around Jupiter, with the occasional encounter with one of its moons.

Spoiler

Edited November 21, 2021 by Pipcard