Shuttle Adventures: An Album of Kerbalized Space Shuttle Missions

[Jacktical]

16 minutes ago, Austin_Kerman said:

I mean, I could install some H2 burners on the back of the shuttle, but there are no parts for that in KSP mod or stock parts.

ROFI's from modular launch pads?

[Autochrome]

Just now, Jacktical said:

ROFI's from modular launch pads?

It’s too big and probably too heavy to put on a Shuttle.

[lemon cup]

1 hour ago, Austin_Kerman said:

It’s too big and probably too heavy to put on a Shuttle.

How about a set of small solid rocket motors, sepatrons maybe? 

But the biggest hurdle with realism I can think of is return to Earth and reentry. The shuttle would not survive an entry coming from the highly eccentric lunar return orbit. Multiple aerobraking passes would be the best bet but I’m not sure if that was possible or not. 

[Autochrome]

20 minutes ago, lemon cup said:

How about a set of small solid rocket motors, sepatrons maybe? 

But the biggest hurdle with realism I can think of is return to Earth and reentry. The shuttle would not survive an entry coming from the highly eccentric lunar return orbit. Multiple aerobraking passes would be the best bet but I’m not sure if that was possible or not. 

I might aerobrake in multiple passes, but I could also do a retrograde burn with the SSME's using the remaining fuel in the ET to slow down enough so I would only have to do a few aerobraking passes, or even only one pass.

Also, welcome to page 9.

[Kuiper_Belt]

21 minutes ago, lemon cup said:

How about a set of small solid rocket motors, sepatrons maybe? 

But the biggest hurdle with realism I can think of is return to Earth and reentry. The shuttle would not survive an entry coming from the highly eccentric lunar return orbit. Multiple aerobraking passes would be the best bet but I’m not sure if that was possible or not. 

I'd say the biggest problem with multiple Aerobrake passing's would be radiating the heat of the TPS. I am definitely not educated enough in material science nor thermodynamics to know if this is a valid concern .

Just now, Austin_Kerman said:

I might aerobrake in multiple passes, but I could also do a retrograde burn with the SSME's using the remaining fuel in the ET to slow down enough so I would only have to do a few aerobraking passes, or even only one pass.

Also, welcome to page 9.

LH2 Boiloff would be large concern there for the realism aspect.

Overall with the residual hydrogen on SSME startup I believe the best course of action would be to use the RCS  or the OMS. You'll have to ullage the fuel anyway and you'll be moving the shuttle ahead of the residual cloud. Then when you ignite the SSMEs the hydrogen is already rather far away. I hope that made sense! 

[Autochrome]

35 minutes ago, Kuiper_Belt said:

I'd say the biggest problem with multiple Aerobrake passing's would be radiating the heat of the TPS. I am definitely not educated enough in material science nor thermodynamics to know if this is a valid concern .

LH2 Boiloff would be large concern there for the realism aspect.

Overall with the residual hydrogen on SSME startup I believe the best course of action would be to use the RCS  or the OMS. You'll have to ullage the fuel anyway and you'll be moving the shuttle ahead of the residual cloud. Then when you ignite the SSMEs the hydrogen is already rather far away. I hope that made sense! 

Aerobraking TPS Problem: I think the TPS will be fine because it will be able to cool down in the freezing vacuum of space on the night-side of the planet. 

LH2 Boiloff: I think I’ll just go with Scott Manley’s advice in his video about how to send a Shuttle to the Moon, by loading more fuel and dealing with it.

Residual Hydrogen Cloud: That’s a great solution to use the RCS to get away from the cloud, I’ll use that, thanks!

Edited December 24, 2021 by Austin_Kerman

[lemon cup]

10 hours ago, Austin_Kerman said:

LH2 Boiloff: I think I’ll just go with Scott Manley’s advice in his video about how to send a Shuttle to the Moon, by loading more fuel and dealing with it.

If you are willing to entertain an ET “redesign” being part of a lunar shuttle program, you might be able to sell it by switching the ET from orange to white.

Reason being is that is would sort of resemble the Saturn S-IVB, which used more effective cryo insulation on the inside of the tank and kept its fuel cold for longer. 

The shuttle ET used external spray-on foam which was lighter but not as effective. Reason for this was it only needed the fuel for the 8 minute launch so no need to refrigerate it for very long, and the foam helped prevent ice build-up on the outside of the tank when sitting fueled on the pad.  
 

So for a redesigned ET with heavier internal insulation, storing LH2 for a week+ might be reasonable.

 

 

 

[Autochrome]

4 hours ago, lemon cup said:

If you are willing to entertain an ET “redesign” being part of a lunar shuttle program, you might be able to sell it by switching the ET from orange to white.

Reason being is that is would sort of resemble the Saturn S-IVB, which used more effective cryo insulation on the inside of the tank and kept its fuel cold for longer. 

The shuttle ET used external spray-on foam which was lighter but not as effective. Reason for this was it only needed the fuel for the 8 minute launch so no need to refrigerate it for very long, and the foam helped prevent ice build-up on the outside of the tank when sitting fueled on the pad.  
 

So for a redesigned ET with heavier internal insulation, storing LH2 for a week+ might be reasonable.

 

 

 

Alright, thanks for the idea, I'll get working on the shuttle and the ET.

Edit: Shuttle, ET, and Launch Pad have been completed and ready to go.

Edited December 24, 2021 by Austin_Kerman

[Autochrome]

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!

Edited December 25, 2021 by Austin_Kerman

[Kuiper_Belt]

STS-125 - The Final Hubble Servicing Mission - May 11th 2009

After the Columbia Disaster, The Space Shuttle Program was grounded entirely. Prior to the disaster, The next mission to Hubble after Servicing Mission 3B would be Servicing Mission 4 by Columbia on April 15th of 2004 with several others planned. All planned missions were immediately canceled with the grounding of the Shuttle Fleet. With new guidelines of all missions being able to reach the ISS and a retirement date set for the Shuttles, A final Hubble servicing mission was under serious question of not happening. Space Shuttles couldn't reach the ISS and Hubble during one mission due to their orbital inclinations being very different (Hubble at 28.5 and The ISS at 51.6) and lack of fuel to perform such a plane change. Should a Shuttle lose its ability to reenter while servicing the HST, there would have no way to save the crew. Luckily engineers and scientists at NASA figured out a solution.

The Hubble Space Telescopes scientific value was astronomical and it's successor, the James Webb Space Telescope wasn't slated for a launch until 2011 and would be continued to be delayed until late 2021. With this considered NASA needed to figure out a way to reach Hubble safely. Should a shuttle be damaged and could not reenter a second Shuttle would be on standby stacked and ready for flight to rescue the crew. Launch Pad 39-B which had been deactivated since 2006 for modifications and use by the Constellation Program was reactivated to host a Shuttle for an STS-125 contingency mission.  This resulted in the situation where two Shuttles stood side by side. STS-125 flown by Atlantis would have STS-400 flown by Endeavour to rescue her. Due to delays with this mission Endeavour was swapped with Discovery for the contingency mission, STS-401 to differentiate the orbiter being used. After further delays STS-401 was reverted back to STS-400 when Endeavour after flying STS-126 was restacked allowing Discovery to fly STS-119.

Atlantis stood at Pad 39-A with five major elements in her cargo bay. From fore to aft, The External Orbiter Docking System & Airlock with the Docking Apparatus removed, The Super Lightweight Interchangeable Carrier, The Orbital Replacement Unit Carried, The Flight Support System, and The Multi-Use Logistic Equipment Carrier. Atlantis' crew of seven stood by waiting for their liftoff at 1:39 PM EDT.

 

After reaching orbit, Atlantis deployed the payload bay doors and prepared to grapple and begin the OBSS survey.

After the OBSS survey was completed and the OBSS stowed, Atlantis continued to coast to rendezvous and capture Hubble.

Carried to orbit by Atlantis were The Wide Field Camera 3, The Cosmic Origins Spectrograph, replacement gyroscopes, replacement batteries, the Soft Capture Mechanism, New Outer Blankets, The fine Guidance Sensor, replacement science and data handling busses. and additional components to repair the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) and the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). These components would be the center of attention for the five planned EVAs by the STS-125 crew.

RMS Capture was confirmed on May 13th at 17:14 UTC on Flight Day 3. The next task was to attach Hubble to Atlantis via the Flight Support System.

Hubble was berthed to the FSS at 18:12 UTC 58 minutes after RMS Capture. Now the crew of STS-125 would prepare for the following EVAs of this mission.  EVAs 1,3, and 5 were conducted by EVA Crew 1 consisting of John Grunsfeld and Andrew Feustel. EVA's 2 and 4 were conducted by EVA Crew 2 consisting of Michael Massimino and Michael Good. STS-125 would retrieve a relic and hero to the any fan of Astronomy and Cosmology, The Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement or COSTAR, which corrected the Hubble primary mirror's spherical aberration. COSTAR could be removed as the new experiments had been built with the Mirrors dimensions fully realized making COSTAR obsolete. (I didn't do separate EVAs and I wont be separating them here due to the resulting length of this post. I would highly recommend you read up on them as they’re quite interesting!)

At the end of Flight Day 9, All five EVAs had been conducted leaving Hubble ready for the future, ready to last until its successors come to replace it. The crew of STS-125 regrappled Hubble and prepared to release it from the Flight Support System at 11:24 UTC on May 19th. 

At 12:57 UTC on May 19th 2009, the crew of STS-125 released Hubble from Canadarm marking the last time humanity had Hubble within their grasp. Atlantis would back away and observe Hubble fully redeploy. Taking final pictures before they back away for good.

After a final inspection, Atlantis was cleared for landing and Endeavour was relinquished from its position as STS-400 on May 21st. The crew of STS-125 initially planned to land on Flight Day 12 May 22, but due to repeated Weather problems at Kennedy and Edwards needing to be activated Atlantis stayed in orbit until May 24th 2009 when she deorbited and prepared for reentry.

After spending 12 days and 21 Hours in space Atlantis touched down at Runway 22 of Edwards Airforce base in California at 8:39 AM Pacific, May 24th 2009. Afterwards Atlantis would be loaded onto the SCA and flown back to the KSC in Florida, leaving Edwards on June 1st and arriving at Kennedy Space Center June 2nd.

STS-125 marked several milestones for the Shuttle Program. First being the Final Hubble Servicing Mission. Second, it was the final landing at Edwards Airforce Base. Third, this was Atlantis' first non space station related flight in 14 years. Lastly, this was the final free flight of a Space Shuttle mission, All subsequent missions would rendezvous with the ISS. At this point The Shuttle Program was winding down, eight more missions remained for The Shuttle Program, with an additional being added at the end. 

Meanwhile Hubble was as alive as ever working well through the 2010s and still going in the 2020s. STS-125 was one of the most important missions for humanity's understanding of space. Hubble's successor, the James Webb Space Telescope would be delayed significantly longer and should a fault have occurred with the unserviced Hubble, the scientific community would have lost one of its most important tools. Luckily, we live with Hubble still functioning to this day with so much more science to discover. Coincidentally this post coincides with a rather important milestone for astronomy!

As I write this the James Webb Space Telescope is standing by for a launch in French Guiana on an Ariane 5 launch vehicle awaiting launch in 7 hours and 54 minutes for launch on Christmas Day. If all goes well, we'll live at the remarkable point where we'll have two massive space telescopes peering into the void to see the beautiful universe we live in and if you ask me that would be the best Christmas present of all. Merry Christmas everyone and Godspeed James Webb!

Edited December 25, 2021 by Kuiper_Belt
JWST has been successfully launched! Godspeed JWST with deployment! Merry Christmas!

[Kuiper_Belt]

Missions To The International Space Station - Volume 2: Apr 2001 - Nov 2002
ISS Adventures, the sister series to Shuttle Adventures has seen a lot of missions over the last couple months since Volume 1. In addition to myself and @lemon cup, we've added a new member to the project.  Author of the International Manned Laboratory series, @D0m1nu2! As previously stated these posts are designed to keep from double posting between threads but keep these missions well documented as these missions are very important to the Shuttle Program. Note, These missions are only through April 2001 and November 2002. This is due to the fact that after 2002, The Shuttle was grounded due to the Columbia Disaster meaning there weren't flights until 2005. Every mission is linked with its designation and date so feel free to open up a new tab and enjoy some wonderful screenshots and the summary of the missions!

STS-104 & The Quest Airlock - July 12th, 2001 By: Lemon Cup

STS-105 & Expedition 3 - August 10th 2001 By: Kuiper Belt

STS-108 & Expedition 4 - December 5th 2001 By: Lemon Cup

STS-110 & The S0 Truss - April 8th 2002 By: Kuiper Belt

STS-111 Expedition 5 & The Mobile Base System - June 5th 2002 By: Lemon Cup

STS-112 & The S1 Truss - October 7th 2002 By: Kuiper Belt

STS-113 & The P1 Truss - November 24th 2002 By: D0m1nu2

At the point of writing this, this is where we now are! I hope you guys enjoy and more missions coming soon!

[TruthfulGnome]

3 hours ago, Kuiper_Belt said:

Missions To The International Space Station - Volume 2: Apr 2001 - Nov 2002
ISS Adventures, the sister series to Shuttle Adventures has seen a lot of missions over the last couple months since Volume 1. In addition to myself and @lemon cup, we've added a new member to the project.  Author of the International Manned Laboratory series, @D0m1nu2! As previously stated these posts are designed to keep from double posting between threads but keep these missions well documented as these missions are very important to the Shuttle Program. Note, These missions are only through April 2001 and November 2002. This is due to the fact that after 2002, The Shuttle was grounded due to the Columbia Disaster meaning there weren't flights until 2005. Every mission is linked with its designation and date so feel free to open up a new tab and enjoy some wonderful screenshots and the summary of the missions!

STS-104 & The Quest Airlock - July 12th, 2001 By: Lemon Cup

STS-105 & Expedition 3 - August 10th 2001 By: Kuiper Belt

STS-108 & Expedition 4 - December 5th 2001 By: Lemon Cup

STS-110 & The S0 Truss - April 8th 2002 By: Kuiper Belt

STS-111 Expedition 5 & The Mobile Base System - June 5th 2002 By: Lemon Cup

STS-112 & The S1 Truss - October 7th 2002 By: Kuiper Belt

STS-113 & The P1 Truss - November 24th 2002 By: D0m1nu2

At the point of writing this, this is where we now are! I hope you guys enjoy and more missions coming soon!

Absolutely beautiful!!

[Kuiper_Belt]

Shuttle Adventures 2021 - An Awesome Beginning

That is the first image that I took for Shuttle Adventures! It's been 298 days since I started this thread and I became active in the forums and I'd say it's been really something awesome! I've found a real nice corner of the internet where myself an others post their adventures with the Space Shuttle. I've loved these past months and I've love this project and I'll continue to maintain it for hopefully a long time! It's been a wild ride and I hope you've all enjoyed it as much as I did and I cant wait to continue! More missions coming soon and Have a Happy New Year!

Edited January 1, 2022 by Kuiper_Belt

[Kuiper_Belt]

MOAR BOOSTERS! - Space Shuttle Booster Upgrades WIP

The X-38 CRV - A Shuttles Shuttle

I'm really pleased with how I got the CRV to look! I think I got the shape down pretty well but that's up to the eye of the beholder . I found the service module to be a lot more nebulous from my research, as a result I just made my own realish one. I'll probably put it on some conventional rockets at some point and play with it!

Both of these projects are rather close to being "Production Ready" but I'll be busy IRL for a while so the missions will be coming slower. Another issue is that ISS is not the bulk standard ISS. That's the original! With the ambitious Russian Segment which adds crazy amounts of parts and then the US HAB and CAM modules (In the previous image you can spot the CAM in the top left, the HAB on Tranquilities port CBM and the Science Power Platform in the bottom right (Yes I know the Science Power Platforms Solar panels shouldn't gimbal on the beam I don't want to turn off the sun tracking in configs as the panels I'm using are used on Mir)). With CRV STS, Soyuz, Progress, HTV and ATV all docked, We might push 1000 parts (OG ISS + CRV is 677 parts). This symbolizes a general issues with high part counts that would manifest in converting my already quite effective space heating PC to a fireplace  so I'll be working on getting part welding working, hopefully soon. 

Next mission coming hopefully soon !

[Randazzo]

This is truly outstanding!

[Autochrome]

By the way, the Space Shuttle to the Moon Project has been delayed due to troubles with the External Tank Refueler, there's no launch vehicle concept at the time that could lift an entire fully-fueled ET to Low Earth Orbit.

[Kuiper_Belt]

6 hours ago, Austin_Kerman said:

By the way, the Space Shuttle to the Moon Project has been delayed due to troubles with the External Tank Refueler, there's no launch vehicle concept at the time that could lift an entire fully-fueled ET to Low Earth Orbit.

Here is an idea to consider. The ET was fueled via the Space Shuttles ET fuel line connections with the fuel being supplied to the shuttle via tail service masts. What you could do is place a docking port on the ET decoupler and refuel it by Shuttle Flights with modified Shuttle Centaur Tanks to hold more fuel. How many would you need? Not sure! I just thought of this while reading you post .

[Autochrome]

14 hours ago, Kuiper_Belt said:

Here is an idea to consider. The ET was fueled via the Space Shuttles ET fuel line connections with the fuel being supplied to the shuttle via tail service masts. What you could do is place a docking port on the ET decoupler and refuel it by Shuttle Flights with modified Shuttle Centaur Tanks to hold more fuel. How many would you need? Not sure! I just thought of this while reading you post .

That would take a long time to fully fuel up the shuttle tank, and the fuel would mostly likely boil off by the time I sent another Shuttle-Centaur Refueler, but with electricity, I might be able to stop the boil off and refuel the entire ET, so that might work, it just might take awhile.

Edit: In the future, I'm planning on making a station made of two ET's, one for habitation by crew , and the other a tanker to refuel shuttles heading to the Moon, it'll look something like this:

Edited January 22, 2022 by Austin_Kerman

[KeaKaka]

1 hour ago, Austin_Kerman said:

That would take a long time to fully fuel up the shuttle tank, and the fuel would mostly likely boil off by the time I sent another Shuttle-Centaur Refueler, but with electricity, I might be able to stop the boil off and refuel the entire ET, so that might work, it just might take awhile.

Edit: In the future, I'm planning on making a station made of two ET's, one for habitation by crew , and the other a tanker to refuel shuttles heading to the Moon, it'll look something like this:

Can I get a link to that pdf?

[Autochrome]

11 minutes ago, KeaKaka said:

Can I get a link to that pdf?

I haven't read through it yet, but it's here: http://ssi.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/ssi_externaltanks_gimarc.pdf

It's 171 pages, so it's definitely going to take awhile to read, but it has a lot of concepts in it.

[Autochrome]

Behold, the might of the legendary Saturn V!

(Launch coming soon to a pad near you.)

[Autochrome]

STS-200 - A New Beginning - January 14, 1985

Sorry for the small delay, I was busy with schoolwork, so without further ado, let me introduce you to this project of mine.

The Aquarius Program: Part 1

In the late 1970's, NASA officials realize the Space Shuttle's potential to return humans to the Moon after the Apollo Program, and devise a program to do so, the Aquarius Program. The main goals of this program are to return people to the Moon permanently, and second and most important, to discover ice at the Lunar Poles, to possibly use for drinking water at a Lunar Base, or to make rocket fuel for refueling depots in orbit.

The way that NASA has planned to send a shuttle to the Moon is to launch a External Tank Refueler on one of the last remaining Saturn V's, and to slowly fill up the empty tank with modified Centaur-G's launched by Shuttles or Titan III launch vehicles, then dock with a Space Shuttle's ET that the shuttle carries with it to orbit. The shuttle will then ignite its modified Block III RS-25's and burn for the Moon. 

Workers immediately begin on modifying an unused External Tank for use a refueler, and paired it up to the two stages of the SA-514 Saturn V, slated for launch in the beginning of 1985. The External Tank Refueler will be reusable, so hopefully the last remaining Saturn V will not have to be sacrificed for the sake of human exploration.

With the beginning of the explanation of the Aquarius Program out of the way, let's fast forward to the launch of the modified External Tank on the Saturn V.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
 

January 14, 1985, Launch Day of STS-200


The Saturn V with the ET Refueler sits out on Pad 39A, waiting to launch to a 28.5 degree inclination orbit.

We have F-1 Main Engine Start.

Liftoff! We have a Liftoff!

We have cleared the tower!

Beginning to pitch downrange of the launch site.

We have confirmed shutdown of the 5 F-1 engines; S-II Stage Separation.

J-2 Engine Ignition.

We have confirmation that the S-II Skirt has been jettisoned.

The S-II Stage continues to orbit with the empty External Tank Refueler.

Beautiful views of Florida and the Atlantic Ocean.

Pitching down to insert into Low Earth Orbit in only one continuous burn.

Nominal Insertion into orbit; shutdown of the J-2 engines.

The Refueler has been deployed into orbit! The mission is looking good so far.

The Solar Panels under the ET are beginning to hinge outwards for deployment.

The hinge outward maneuver has been completed.

The Solar Panels have successfully deployed!

The ET Refueler will now wait in LEO for Centaur-G's to refill it so it can refuel the Shuttle's External Tank for the Moon.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I hope you have enjoyed this first part in a series of posts I will be doing on this thread. Feel free to nitpick parts of this program, so I can improve it as I go along. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and I hope you have a great day!

Edited January 26, 2022 by Austin_Kerman
Changed the title to match Kuiper_Belt's way of titling missions.

[Autochrome]

Here's a little sneak peek of the upcoming Aquarius Program Post #2...

[Autochrome]

ET Refueling Mission 1 - Return of the Toxic King - January 28, 1985

Here is the second post of this alternate timeline, which I have decided to name "You Are Go For TLI", or "Go For TLI" for short. I made a standalone thread for these posts, which can be found here. I hope you enjoy this installment of the series, and have a great day!

The Aquarius Program: Part 2

After the launch of the External Tank Refueler on a Saturn V, NASA prepares for the first launch of the modified Centaur G refuelers, called the Centaur R, to dock with the modified ET on a Titan IIIE, which was last launched in 1977, but is brought from the dead for these series of missions.

Two weeks later, a Titan IIIE is rolled out to Launch Complex 41's pad for ETRM-1, one of the many missions required to get the ET Refueler enough to refuel a Shuttle's External Tank.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

January 28, 1985, Launch Day of ETRM-1

The Titan IIIE with the Centaur R sits on the pad at Launch Complex 41.

We have a liftoff of the first ET refueling mission of many!

We have confirmation of Roll Program.

Surpassing the speed of sound; Max-Q.

Pitching over to get into Earth Orbit.

Booster Separation.

Fairing Separation.

First Stage Separation; continuing to orbit.

Orbit Achieved of Earth; Payload Deployed.

Solar Panel Deployment.

Correction Burn to reach the ET Refueler. 

The sunlight shines on the Centaur R as it draws closer to the modified ET.

The target has been spotted; the docking attempt of the Centaur R begins.

We have soft capture of the Centaur R.

Hard dock achieved.

The sun sets on the ET Refueler-Centaur R combination; refueling process starts.|

The refueling process is finished; Centaur R gets ready to undock.

The Centaur undocks, and leaves the ET behind.

Deorbit Burn of the Centaur R on RCS.

Death of the first Centaur R from reentry.  (o7)
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

With this first mission done, the rest of the first set of Centaur R's and their Titan IIIE's are prepared for launch to the ET Refueler.

[Autochrome]

Alright, I have another problem. The Hydrogen in the ET is boiling off too rapidly to stop, which I expected, so I turned on the boiloff prevention option using electricity. However, the battery runs down and the hydrogen starts to boil off after the battery dies, so I am basically back to where I started before every Centaur R refueling mission. Do any of you know how to refuel the ET without all of the hydrogen boiling off with Centaur R's or another vehicle?

Edit: This could potentially work, but it might take 25 Centaur R's or more, which would way too long for every Space Shuttle Moon mission (I'm almost starting to think the Shuttle was not meant for this ).

Edited February 5, 2022 by Austin_Kerman