ISS Adventures: A Kerbalized Recreation of Missions to the International Space Station

[lemon cup]

Kicking off Page 4 - Whew, we have finally made it through year 2001! This was a very busy year for the early constructors of the International Space Station and you could say that the initial stage of development - that is the addition of all primary station systems, base modules, and internal outfitting - was officially over. 

At this point in time, the electrical power capability of the station was maxed out. The next step in expansion, before any new modules could be added, was to construct the Integrated Truss Structure. This would come to serve as the main power bus and the "backbone" of the station, and would house the 8 massive solar arrays that would be necessary to provide electricity to all incoming modules.

But before work began on the Truss Structure, Expedition 4 still had a few tasks to knock out...

On January 14th, 2002, Yuri Unofriyenko and Carl Walz conducted the first station EVA of Expedition 4 from the Pirs airlock. The primary goal was to unpack and assemble the Russian Strela-2 cargo crane, which was launched aboard Pirs back in September of 2001. Strela 2 now joined Strela 1 at the opposite mounting location of the Pirs module, and gave spacewalkers plenty of options for moving cargo and people safely across the length of the Russian Orbital Segment.

A second EVA conducted on January 25th, also from the Pirs module, saw the two crewmembers installing thruster deflectors and a ham radio at the rear of the Zvezda module.

A final EVA performed on February 20th was performed to ready the US Lab for the upcoming STS-110, and ensure everything would go smoothly for berthing and installing the S0 Truss. This was the first EVA from the Quest module without a Space Shuttle present.

With Expedition 4 members working around the clock to perform a full suite of experiments onboard the Destiny Lab, as well as prepping the station for the arrival of more components, the team was set to receive a much-needed shipment of supplies from the latest Progress vehicle.

Progress M1-8 coming (very) soon.

And as a quick note: myself and @Kuiper_Belt will now be swapping out every 2 missions, instead of 1, for the time being. This is to balance the workload of the Truss assembly!

[lemon cup]

Departure of Progress M1-7

Packed with waste materials, Progress M1-7 was remotely undocked from the Zvezda aft port on March 19th, 2002, to make way for the next vehicle.



Before being deorbiting, M1-7 deployed a small Kolibri 2000 micro-satellite, which it had carried into space during launch back in November of 2001.



The retired spacecraft burned up safely in atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean on March 20th, 2002.

Progress M1-8   -   March 21st, 2001

During the undocking and reentry of Progress M1-7, her younger sibling stood by on the pad of Baikonur Cosmodrome atop its Soyuz-U launch vehicle.

Another routine mission to the ISS to resupply Expedition 4, Progress M1-8 launched in the late hours of March 21st, 2002.

The launch and orbital insertion of M1-8 was very similar to that of previous Progress and Soyuz vehicles before it. The only exception being that it spent a slightly longer amount of time on phasing orbit, and rendezvoused with the station after almost 3 days. 

Docking was confirmed at midnight of March 25th in Moscow, where Roskosmos Mission Control is located. At this point Expedition 4 had been at the station for 3 months and 15 days.



The crew set to work unpacking the Progress as was standard practice. With fresh supplies of food, air, and water, as well as topping off the fuel reserves of the Russian Segment, everything was in place for the arrival of the very first Truss Segment component.

Coming up next, STS-110 brings up the S0 Truss!

[Kuiper_Belt]

Can someone scratch the backbone? Thanks!

A picture of me testing out the movements for Canadarm 2 to put S0 in its permanent position.

STS-110 & The S0 Truss Coming Soon!

[Kuiper_Belt]

STS-110 and The S0 Truss -  April 8th 2002

The International Space Station is composed of two major elements, the US and Russian Orbital Segments. Composing the US Segment is two more major elements, the pressurized modules, and the Integrated Truss Structure. As of 2002, two of the segments have already been delivered and integrated to the ISS, Z1 and the P6 solar array wing. The orbital laboratory's power generation and heat dissipation is only enough to support the existing modules with some spare margin but it faces the problem of not being able to facilitate the addition of pressurized modules that are intended for the station. The solution is found in the Integrated Truss Structure.

The Integrated Truss Structure (Also referred to as the stations backbone ITS or just Truss) is composed of several large elements amounting to a large unpressurized rail, perpendicular to Unity, Destiny, etc. When completed, the ITS will host 4 solar array wings, several radiators, batteries, experiments tools, spare components, and other important items to power, cool, and maintain the station. The initial foundation has already been laid out with Z1 and P6 but for the station to reach full capacity, the assembly of the lateral truss must begin. The first piece to be installed being S0.

The Starboard 0 Truss or S0 is the primary connection of the greater truss backbone to the station, mounting to The Destiny Laboratory via several support pylons. S0 provides connections to the stations pressurized modules to support, power and heat transfer. S0 is also fitted with rails and the Mobile Transporter. When combined with the CanadArm 2 and the Mobile Base System, this will permit the CanadaArm to travel along the truss on the rails to facilitate assembly of the rest of the ITS.

Standing by at Kennedy Space Centers Launch Pad 39-B, Space Shuttle Atlantis stands fueled for flight waiting for liftoff on April 8th 2002 at 4:44 PM Eastern Daylight Time. Atlantis is flying for the first time fitted with 3 Block 2 SSMEs or RS-25Ds providing more efficiency and greater thrust to facilitate the heavy payloads to the International Space Station. Atlantis is go for launch.

If you would like to see the entire album please check out the Imgur Gallery!

Once Atlantis is in orbit, She coasts and alters her orbit for an approach with the International Space Station in 2 days time for an eventual docking with PMA-2 attached to Destiny.

Soft Capture Confirmed, Atlantis docks with the International Space Station on April 10th 2002 at 4:05 PM UTC. The crew open hatches and prepare to extract S0 from Atlantis' payload bay using CanadArm 2.

Once nearly attached, Steven Smith and Rex Walheim of EVA crew 1 prepare for the first of four EVAs .where they will attach the S0 Truss to Destiny, remove launch restraints, make connections to the pressurized modules and prepare for the installation of the Mobile Base System, and additional truss segments. The subsequent EVA will be crewed by Jerry Ross and Lee Morin of EVA crew 2.  (Crew 1 performed EVAs 1 & 3 while Crew 2 performed EVAs 2 & 4,)

After installation, the first test of the Mobile Transporter is conducted, sliding it across the rails of S0.

Success! The Mobile Transporter will permit the ability to move modules delivered by the Space Shuttle to far out on the ITS where the CanadArms couldn't reach normally.

After 7 days docked to the ISS, Atlantis and the crew undocked on April 17th 2002 at 6:31 PM UTC.

Atlantis would coast for 2 Days until on April 19th it would reenter for landing at Kennedy Space Center.

Landing at Runway 33 of the Shuttle Landing Facility, Atlantis ended the ten day mission at 12:26 Eastern Daylight Time. The crew of Expedition 4 now prepared for the next visit to the station.

Up Next, Soyuz TM-34!

 

Edited December 12, 2021 by Kuiper_Belt

[Kuiper_Belt]

Tonight, Soyuz TM-33 changes Docking Ports, Soyuz TM-34 launches and docks, and Soyuz TM-33 Returns home... (Top Gear is awesome )

Coming Soon, Soyuz TM-34! (Maybe tonight but probably not )

 

[Kuiper_Belt]

Soyuz TM-33 Port Relocation - April 20th 2002

The Soyuz Spacecraft’s on orbit lifetime is about 6 months before needing to be returned home. Having been launched in October of 2001, Soyuz TM-33 was reaching is expiration date. In addition to this the Russian Segment has only 3 Soyuz and Progress compatible docking ports, being Zvezda’s Aft, Pirs, and Zarya’s Nadir. Zvezda's Aft docking port is generally reserved for Progress resupply ships. Its advantageous for boosting the station with Progress’s engine. Pirs is generally not occupied for long stretched to allow for use of its airlock functionality. While Pirs can be used as an airlock while having a spacecraft docked to it, in the event the Space Station needs to be evacuated while a spacewalk is being conducted the Soyuz would be obstructed by the closed hatches on the interior of the station. This leaves Zarya's Nadir port as the optimal long duration port. 

Soyuz TM-33 docked to Zarya’s Nadir port back in October 2001 and now needs to move for Soyuz TM-34.  Yuri Onufrienko, Daniel Bursch and Carl Walz of Expedition 4 board the Soyuz on April 20th 2002 at 09:16 UTC and undock after 178 days docked to the station.

Docking Confirmed! The crew disembark from Soyuz and resume work on the station awaiting the arrival of their new ride and guests.

Soyuz TM-34: The End of TM - April 25 2002

Soyuz TM was first used in 1986 and first flown with crew in 1987, both flights flew to Mir. With a storied 16 year history of lifting crews to Mir and The ISS, Soyuz TM-34 would cap of the legacy of Soyuz TM. Replacing it would be Soyuz TMA with a suite of upgrades from the older TM variant much like Soyuz TM did to Soyuz T.

Flying aboard  Soyuz TM-34 would be Cosmonaut Yuri Gidzenk, Astronaut Roberto Vittori of ESA and South African Entrepreneur and Space Tourist to be, Mark Shuttleworth. Standing by for launch at 11:26 AM local time,  the crew and the Soyuz U carrier rocket waited as the launch clock counted closer to zero. 

Orbit achieved! After separation, Soyuz TM-34 coasted and tweaked its orbit for approach and rendezvous on the 27th of April.

Now lined up with Zvezda's Nadir port, TM-34 closes in for final approach and capture.

Contact. Soyuz TM-34 docked to the ISS at 07:55 UTC on April 27th 2002. The crew opens hatches and exchange greetings with the Expedition 4 crew. They spend about 8 days aboard with the Expedition 4 crew and completed various experiments. 

 After the 8 days elapsed, the crew of TM-34 boarded Soyuz TM-33 and prepared to undock at 00:31 UTC on May 5th 2002.

After backing away form The ISS for 3 hours Soyuz T-33 burned to deorbit and land in Kazakhstan.

Gidzenko, Vittori, and Shuttleworth landed at 8:51 local time in Kazakhstan capping off the 14th crewed mission to the ISS. The crew of Expedition 4 had a month left in their mission aboard the orbital outpost before they'd be cycled out for the next expedition crew. They carried on with experiments and prepared for the arrival of the next crew.

Up Next, STS-111 and Expedition 5!

Edited November 23, 2021 by Kuiper_Belt

[D0m1nu2]

Amazing as always! I've just noticed that you have some shadow issue with scatterer in the last post. Here is simple fix. In KSC open scatterer menu (Right Alt+ F11) in there go to shadows settings and enable long-shadows (or something similar to this) once you're there change number to this:
 

 

One more thing about the Soyuz dokcing to Zarya (sorry for being ass about it but I really like this project and want to help you to be perfect) Soyuz/Progress solar panle blue side should alaways face to back. rotation of 45° as it was on TM-34 is right it just need to be turned by 180° so basically the name on spacecraft is facing to front. Like this.

This is applied from Rassvet, before that it was actually docked like you did, sorry for confusing you.

Except Rassvet isn't and won't be there for a while ofc.

Edited November 30, 2021 by D0m1nu2

[lemon cup]

A little ahead of schedule for a change...! STS-111 coming soon.

 

[lemon cup]

 

STS-111   -   June 5th, 2002
Expedition 5

View Full Album

Six months after completing her previous mission, Space Shuttle Endeavour returned to the ISS once again to rotate station crews. Riding to the ISS on the Shuttle’s middeck were Expedition 5 members Peggy Whitson, Sergei Treshchyov, and Commander Valeri Korzun.

The four tenant crewmembers of STS-111 were led by seasoned Commander Kenneth “Taco” Cockrell, along with pilot Paul “Paco” Lockhart, Franklin Chang-Diaz, and Phillipe “Pepe” Perrin -  a French CNES astronaut.

Endeavour launched from Cape Canaveral LC-39A on a late summertime afternoon off the Florida coast.

Typical for crew rotation missions, the payload bay housed an Italian MPLM packed with a plethora of supplies and hardware for the upcoming 6-month mission.

Also onboard the Shuttle was a relatively small but superbly integral station component – the Canadian-built Mobile Base System, or MBS. This would be connected to the recently added S0 Truss.




Taco handled the approach and docking to the ISS, slowly guiding Endeavour by hand to the forward port of the Destiny lab.

Each time a Shuttle docked to the ISS during the early Expeditions, the number of people aboard the station instantly tripled. The newly-combined crew of 10 immediately got to work unloading supplies and preparing for the next week of activities.



The first major task was berthing the MPLM and unpacking its many contents. On this mission, Paco and Taco handled operating the Shuttle’s robotic arm.

(Side note: No one at HQ thought twice about putting these two fellows on the same mission?)



Next, a variety of tasks needed to be performed across 3 total EVAs on the station exterior, all of which were done by Franklin and Pepe. They installed debris shields, a new grapple fixture on the P6 Truss, replaced a faulty joint on Canadarm2, and assisted installing the MBS.




Controlling the station arm from inside the Destiny lab, Peggy Whitson retrieved the MBS from the payload bay and placed it on the Mobile Transporter. The MT is a “rail car” that rides along a “track” built into the Truss Structure. Once installed, it will be the new home of Canadarm2 and allow it to traverse the entire length of the station.

Testing the MBS! 

 

Theoretically, Canadarm2 was now capable of "stepping off" it's old fixture on the Destiny lab to its new home, but this was not actually done until more checks could be run on the MBS, to ensure it could provide steady power without stranding the station's only robotic arm.

After a busy week of getting the station prepped for the following months of operations, the crew of STS-111 - now accompanied by the outbound Expedition 4 members - departs the ISS to return home. The MPLM goes back in the cargo bay filled with waste material from the previous crew's stay.
 

Paco takes command of the Shuttle and handles the departure. 



The next 3 days are spent in orbit on weather hold, until Houston finally makes the call and diverts Endeavour to land at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
 

The flight computers handle reentry, but Paco takes manual control of the Shuttle for a smooth landing at Edwards on June 19^th, 2002.

The only member of the 7-person landing team that will return to space is Paco Lockhart; STS-111 is the last spaceflight of everyone else’s career. This includes renowned Costa Rican astronaut Franklin Chang-Diaz, after a record-breaking 7 Shuttle missions with NASA dating back to STS-61C in 1986.

Up next, the ISS receives an extra load of supplies for the new crew, courtesy of:

Progress M-46!

Edited November 29, 2021 by lemon cup

[Staticalliam7]

Those kerbals are always so happy and adorable on spacewalks! Excellent story so far

Plot twist: the station starts spinning 

[lemon cup]

3 hours ago, Staticalliam7 said:

Those kerbals are always so happy and adorable on spacewalks! Excellent story so far

Plot twist: the station starts spinning 

Nuaka is not for almost 20 more years! 

[lemon cup]

On 11/25/2021 at 1:07 AM, D0m1nu2 said:

This is applied from Rassvet, before that it was actually docked like you did, sorry for confusing you

No worries, I was confused myself prior to your advice! Lol. I would have thought the docking of Soyuz-type vehicles was restricted to just one precise orientation - to allow special fluid and air lines to line up correctly?

Could it have been that Progress and Soyuz vehicles made after a certain date changed the rotation of the port during install?

Also here is a question for you or anyone that might know: When exactly did the CanadArm2 first step off from Destiny to the new spot on the MBS? From footage I have seen, it remained attached to Destiny at the end of STS-111. But by STS-112 it had moved to the MBS, and I can't find any documentation of when - in that 4 month period -  this was first done.

[lemon cup]

Departure of Progress M1-8


After 93 days docked to the ISS, Progress M1-8 undocked just past midnight in Moscow on June 26, 2002. 

Half a day later, the spent vehicle re-entered Earth's atmosphere and burned up over the southern Pacific Ocean. But just hours before that, the next Progress had already launched and made it to orbit.

Progress M-46

June 26, 2002 at Baikonur Cosmodrome, mid-day. 

Lift-off!

Progress M-46 was an M-series vehicle, thus it carried mostly pressurized cargo for crew aboard the ISS, with only a small compliment of fuel for topping of the Zvezda module. 

Rendezvous with the station occurred exactly 48 hours after launch. The "Kurs" automated docking system handled the maneuvering, while the three Expedition 5 crew members stood at command consoles aboard the ISS, ready to take over in case the system failed.

Progress M-46 was essentially an early supplement to the Expedition 5 mission. Along with supplies brought up on STS-111, they were now equipped to endure the next 3 months in Low Earth Orbit. 

Coming up, Space Shuttle Atlantis delivers the next Truss Segment on STS-112!

edit: agh! Getting ahead of ourselves here aboard the ISS, looks like we’ll need some more supplies beforehand with Progress M1-9!

Edited December 4, 2021 by lemon cup

[Jacktical]

3 hours ago, lemon cup said:

Departure of Progress M1-8


After 93 days docked to the ISS, Progress M1-8 undocked just past midnight in Moscow on June 26, 2002. 

Half a day later, the spent vehicle re-entered Earth's atmosphere and burned up over the southern Pacific Ocean. But just hours before that, the next Progress had already launched and made it to orbit.

Progress M-46

June 26, 2002 at Baikonur Cosmodrome, mid-day. 

Lift-off!

Progress M-46 was an M-series vehicle, thus it carried mostly pressurized cargo for crew aboard the ISS, with only a small compliment of fuel for topping of the Zvezda module. 

Rendezvous with the station occurred exactly 48 hours after launch. The "Kurs" automated docking system handled the maneuvering, while the three Expedition 5 crew members stood at command consoles aboard the ISS, ready to take over in case the system failed.

Progress M-46 was essentially an early supplement to the Expedition 5 mission. Along with supplies brought up on STS-111, they were now equipped to endure the next 3 months in Low Earth Orbit. 

Coming up, Space Shuttle Atlantis delivers the next Truss Segment on STS-112!

Have you got 64k textures or something? This actually looks like real life at this point 

[D0m1nu2]

17 hours ago, lemon cup said:

No worries, I was confused myself prior to your advice! Lol. I would have thought the docking of Soyuz-type vehicles was restricted to just one precise orientation - to allow special fluid and air lines to line up correctly?

Could it have been that Progress and Soyuz vehicles made after a certain date changed the rotation of the port during install?

Also here is a question for you or anyone that might know: When exactly did the CanadArm2 first step off from Destiny to the new spot on the MBS? From footage I have seen, it remained attached to Destiny at the end of STS-111. But by STS-112 it had moved to the MBS, and I can't find any documentation of when - in that 4 month period -  this was first done.

Yeah, rotation is because of the fluid and air lines.
And the reason why it is rotated like it was in picture I sent is probably because Rassvet was made like this for right solar panel orientation I guess.

[lemon cup]

5 hours ago, Jacktical said:

Have you got 64k textures or something? This actually looks like real life at this point 

Thanks  Nope I am using the 32k clouds and 16k ground textures that comes with KSRSS. I just have the station pulled up in a bit higher orbit than usual, as that is where that ground textures really pop.

[danfarnsy]

Are you using TUFX for your color adjustments? You're matching the brightness, contrast, etc. of NASA photos about as well as I could imagine from KSP. I tried to get there with a TUFX profile, but yours is fantastic.

[lemon cup]

17 hours ago, danfarnsy said:

Are you using TUFX for your color adjustments? You're matching the brightness, contrast, etc. of NASA photos about as well as I could imagine from KSP. I tried to get there with a TUFX profile, but yours is fantastic.

For me, it is a combination of a TUFX that combines the best effects from both @Pioneer_Steve and @alberro+ as well as my own meticulous tweaking, to get one base profile that covers a wide range of lighting conditions. 

Each situation and craft really reacts differently for any given profile. So afterwards I use Windows Photos (comes default with Windows 10/11) for very basic adjusting of light levels to solve that.

Soon I’ll post a couple of raw before/after shots to give a general idea of what that looks like 

 

 

[Pointblank66]

Where exactly can I get the Canadarm2 from? I've been checking all the mods of the modlist in the parent post but can't find anything(or I'm not looking in the right place??)

[danfarnsy]

19 hours ago, Pointblank66 said:

Where exactly can I get the Canadarm2 from? I've been checking all the mods of the modlist in the parent post but can't find anything(or I'm not looking in the right place??)

It's part of SOCK, I think

[lemon cup]

1 hour ago, danfarnsy said:

It's part of SOCK, I think

@Pointblank66
Nyet, komrade.  Our CanadArm2 is actually a kitbash. The main booms are in fact from SOCK(the bundled htRobotics mire specifically) while those robotic rotary servos come from benjee_10s MMSEV mod. And the L-joints are tweakscaled pieces from Nertea’s SSPXR.

The most pivotal (no pun intended) parts are those rotary servos, they are a great fit for the job. There are probably several routes you could go to get the rest of the arm.

Edited December 3, 2021 by lemon cup

[OrbitalManeuvers]

This thread is really impressive!

May I toss in another technical question? I'm curious about your KSRSS installs. In the OP it lists your mods, and among them are the KSRSS textures and the KSRSS Eve stuff. Does this still reflect your current install? I ask because KSRSS 0.7 now comes with both of those things internally in the 0.7 branch, but I'm desperate to solve the black terrain issue outside the VAB, so I'm looking for any differences in my install and other people's.  Actually, if either of you have a second to post a picture of your GameData folder, that would be incredibly helpful and very much appreciated! Sorry about strangers asking favors

 

[Pointblank66]

22 hours ago, lemon cup said:

@Pointblank66
Nyet, komrade.  Our CanadArm2 is actually a kitbash. The main booms are in fact from SOCK(the bundled htRobotics mire specifically) while those robotic rotary servos come from benjee_10s MMSEV mod. And the L-joints are tweakscaled pieces from Nertea’s SSPXR.

The most pivotal (no pun intended) parts are those rotary servos, they are a great fit for the job. There are probably several routes you could go to get the rest of the arm.

I see, I had a feeling that is might have been either a kitbash or just a personal mod. Are you using Infernal Robotics or just the stock ksp robotics to move the arm about? If it is possible, could you post a side by side close up of the end affecters?

[lemon cup]

3 hours ago, Pointblank66 said:

Are you using Infernal Robotics or just the stock ksp robotics to move the arm about? If it is possible, could you post a side by side close up of the end affecters?

I can try to get that for you guys here in a bit, and yes I forgot to mention that the end effector is also from SOCK/htRobotics, the idea is that it’s compatible with the Shuttle’s common PDGFs. And all of the parts utilize stock robotics, courtesy of benjee_10’s modding prowess.

3 hours ago, OrbitalManeuvers said:

I'm desperate to solve the black terrain issue outside the VAB, so I'm looking for any differences in my install and other people's. 

I can try and give you something like that also, sounds very strange. But yes we are both using KSRSS 0.7 beta; I am in 1..11.2 and Kuiper is in 1.12.

Hmmmmm,

I am really unversed when it comes to troubleshooting issues like this, but when you mention black terrain, the thing that sticks out to me the most is actually Scatterer. Have you looked into that? Might be beneficial because I know BlackRack (current manager of scatterer) is still pretty active and might be able to help.

 

Edited December 4, 2021 by lemon cup

[OrbitalManeuvers]

1 hour ago, lemon cup said:

I am really unversed when it comes to troubleshooting issues like this,

Ah no worries, and thank you for the reply. I'm sure it's not scatterer, as I've tried installs with just the KSRSS files. And actually, it's only black terrain outside the VAB, when you're inside the VAB looking out, or when you use Hanger Extender, then the whole world is black. But in flight or space center scene terrain is fine. Not the end of the world.

These are the folders I'm curious if you still have, from your op:

KSRSS (0.7)
KSRSS-Textures     <---- this one?
KSRSSVE   <---- and this one?

Thanks again!