Phoenix-Gemini - First Crewed Lunar Orbit (August 4, 1959) - RSS/RO/RP-1

[John_41]

Hello all.
 

I've been doing an RP-1 career mode play through and I thought I'd share a few images of one of my missions. I've been pushing pretty hard, trying to get as much R&D done as quickly as I could. I wanted to get people to the Moon by the end of 1959. I wanted a craft that could get to the Moon from LEO, capture around the Moon, and return to Earth. I came up with this:

The Phoenix! Obviously modelled on Cochran's Warp ship from Star Trek: First Contact. The design was as close to the movie as I felt I could get without sacrificing too much functionality. My first use of Hydrolox engines in my RP-1 play through, so it seemed like a good fit for a prototype ship.

I really like the Gemini capsule and lunar Gemini seemed like a fun challenge. The nacelles deploy using infernal robotics parts.

Getting the 21 ton craft to orbit wasn't trivial. I wasn't going to be able to make orbit on the back of a Titan 2 missile like in the movie. The launch vehicle had a core stage of 7 LR79 engines with 4 boosters each with 2 LR89 engines and a second stage made up of 3 LR91 engines.

Completed the first EVA contract too! (The first craft I sent up with a capsule that could support EVAs)

Trans-lunar injection burn

Retracting nacelles and deploying solar array. Needed a pile of solar panels at level 2 solar tech.

Capturing around the moon. The DeltaV margins were tighter than I would have liked. Only had around 90m/s left in the tank when I finished the burn sending the craft back to Earth. Glad the boil-off wasn't too bad. First Lunar EVA too!

Detaching from the drive section. Probably shouldn't have been that close to it as it was exploding. Always wondered how they got the Phoenix back to Montana in First Contact. Presumably the whole ship survived to be put in the Smithsonian.

Landing somewhere south of Asia.

I've been recording my Career play through, editing it with music and posting it on YouTube. Most of the episodes are pretty standard fare, the kind of thing you'd see in most RP-1 careers, but I thought this mission was kind of neat. The video can be found here:

 

The Phoenix bit runs from around 2:45 to 12:15

[Vanamonde]

Star Trek fan, eh? 

[John_41]

Trying to build anything more elaborate than the Phoenix, in RP-1, in 1959, seemed like a mean feat, but I might see if I can build some other visually interesting craft that are still functional.

VAOS did a cool video of the Phoenix launch in stock KSP. I don't think I'll be trying any kraken drives in my RP-1 play through though. I haven't seen too many other Phoenix inspired craft, though if anyone has links, I'd like to see what others have done.

 

On 2/8/2022 at 5:47 PM, Vanamonde said:

Star Trek fan, eh?

First Contact was my favorite TNG movie. Remember first seeing it back in the 90s. In retrospect, it's kind of a mess, but it had some good moments. I liked James Cromwell's take on Cochrane and he, Jonathan Frakes and LeVar Burton seemed to have some good chemistry on screen. Probably why I liked that ship so much.

 

Edited February 10, 2022 by John_41
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