Project Lepidoptera - A Narrative JNSQ + Principia Spaceplane Centered Report

[JaviAvali]

Project Lepidoptera

Taking after one of my close friends, I've decided to start a JNSQ, story-oriented sandbox save.
There aren't really any specific restrictions I have in place, but I do want to progress realistically.

Difficulty Highlights:
Kerbals do not respawn, parts and Kerbals have G limits and parts also have Temperature limits.

Key mods are:

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BARIS | adds failures to make it that much more real
Final Frontier | helps me keep track of achievements
Ferram Aerospace Research | makes aerodynamics more realistic
JNSQ | of course-
Near Future Technologies | gotta love those parts!
Principia | for realistic orbital shenanigans and making rendezvous easier for me somehow
Restock + | more lovable parts added
Snacks | life support mod that doesn't cut off my life support

Mission List:

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Format:
-Name | Placeholder I
-Goal | Demonstrate the format.
-Events | After typing on the keyboard, it displayed on the forum and demonstrated the format I plan to use to list and log my missions.
-Outcome | Success
| Stage 1: "Prelude" |

-Name | Fennec I
-Goal | Breach the Karman Line.
-Events | Takeoff went well and the dual Junos performed nominally after a quick fix on Jeb's part. Soon after the Fennec breached the cloud layer, the Juno engines burnt out due to a lack of atmospheric oxygen. Then, the Javelin aerospike engine's thrust limit was removed, allowing it to boost at full speed to compensate for the lack of the Junos support and hopefully to nudge the trajectory into space.  An excessive jolt upwards which Jeb passionately insists was "Turbulence. 100%." tore the aircraft apart leaving the command module separated from the rest of the craft as the flying shrapnel fell to dust in the air.  The bare command module fell to the sea near the KSC rapidly. Jeb was able to exit the command module and deploy his personal parachute, gliding down to safety and splashing down in the water.
-Outcome | Failure

-Name | Fennec II
-Goal | Breach the Karman line.
-Events | Employing Valentina this time after a quick refit, takeoff goes well with a quick ascent up from the ground. During the ascent up which is sharper this time to accommodate the need for only entering space, the thrust limiter on one of the Junos is calibrated incorrectly however this error is brief enough to avoid disrupting anything. Once again, just above the cloud layer, the aerospike's thrust limiter is removed. Soon after, the Junos burn out. The craft performs nominally, but a mistaken pull upwards again tears the craft apart, leaving only the command pod intact. Valentina stays in and exits soon after and glides down safely with her parachute to the sea below her.
-Outcome | Failure

-Name | Doe I
-Goal | Send a probe into orbit to establish direct communications.
-Events | A nominal takeoff was followed by the detonation of a solid rocket booster, sending the craft into a retrograde trajectory soon after takeoff. After separation from the boosters, overcompensation for the suddenly absent torque downwards knocked the craft around enough for it to fall apart in the air once again, leading a shower of shrapnel to fall just west of the KSC.
-Outcome | Failure

-Name | Doe II
-Goal | Send a probe into orbit to establish direct communications.
-Events | Another nominal takeoff was disrupted by the explosion of two out of the three solid rocket boosters this time, again sending the craft reeling retrograde. The remaining one was detached promptly and the rocket attempted to continue upwards. The trajectory was however incredibly low and detachment of the lower stage led the probe to fall apart again off of the upper stage.
-Outcome | Failure

-Name | Doe III
-Goal | Send a probe into orbit to establish direct communications.
-Events | Seconds after launch, the primary engine exploded leading the craft to fall back onto the launchpad. After a bounce, a bit of the first stage and the entirety of the rest of the rocket was able to be recovered safely.
-Outcome | Failure

-Name | Doe IV
-Goal | Send a probe into orbit to establish direct communications.
-Events | Launch and ascent were nominal. Following a late detachment of the drop tanks, the lower stage fuel tank sprung a leak though it was almost empty as well as a declared failure of the upper stage engine. After detaching the lower stage, the upper stage turned out to be perfectly fine. Late after detachment from the lower stage, the fairing was decoupled. Before detaching the upper stage, it sprang a leak as well once it was almost empty. It was detached after a few small burns with it. The probe itself extended its antennae and powered the rest of the flight, engaging a circularization burn after a meaningless failure of the sepratron boosters.
-Outcome | Success

-Name | Doe V (Part 1)
-Goal | Send a probe into low Kerbin orbit to prepare it for further advancement.
-Events | Launch and ascent were nominal again. Utilizing a handy autopilot to take it for a test run in the field, it detached the drop tanks at the perfect time. The lower stage was detached as soon as it ran out while the powerful upper stage powered the rest of the trip though the ascent angle was a bit too gentle, requiring manual intervention. The fairing was decoupled once the spacecraft breached the atmosphere. The upper stage was powerful enough to carry the probe into orbit and have a bit of fuel to spare, proving its effectiveness. 
-Outcome | Success

-Name | Doe V (Part 2)
-Goal | Send a probe into the Kerbin-Mun L4 Lagrange point.
-Events | A burn to exit LKO utilized the rest of the upper stage, the booster sepratrons, and the Ant engine.  It reached near the Mun's orbit in the perfect position to enter the Kerbin-Mun L4 point. Another burn brought it into that point, then another optimized the orbit.
-Outcome | Success

Chapter List:

Chapter/Stage 1

Edited August 4, 2022 by JaviAvali
More!

[JaviAvali]

Stage 1, "Prelude"
-Name | Fennec I
-Goal | Breach the Karman Line.
-Events | Takeoff went well and the dual Junos performed nominally after a quick fix on Jeb's part. Soon after the Fennec breached the cloud layer, the Juno engines burnt out due to a lack of atmospheric oxygen. Then, the Javelin aerospike engine's thrust limit was removed, allowing it to boost at full speed to compensate for the lack of the Junos support and hopefully to nudge the trajectory into space.  An excessive jolt upwards which Jeb passionately insists was "Turbulence. 100%." tore the aircraft apart leaving the command module separated from the rest of the craft as the flying shrapnel fell to dust in the air.  The bare command module fell to the sea near the KSC rapidly. Jeb was able to exit the command module and deploy his personal parachute, gliding down to safety and splashing down in the water.
-Outcome | Failure

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"Clearance granted, please take off."
"I don't need your damn clearance! I'm in the plane and what are you doing?"

"Begin gentle climb now. Remember, don't force it. This is just a special plane."
"You were the ones who trained me; don't tell me I don't know what this thing can take."
"T-that's not what we said." *sigh*

"Just passed over the sea, bet you nerds at the KSC haven't even taken a step off of that chair!"
"Keep that angle of attack for us."
"Did you hear me? I'll just guess you couldn't make a good comeback."

"Alright, you've breached the clouds, now it should be smooth sailing. The air's thinner up here, so don't worry about turbulence."
"Turbulence? Pff, I don't feel turbulence. Never have."

"Okay, you're just at the perfect altitude to unlock the Aerospike. Disable the thrust limiter and let that thing burn."
"Yeah, yeah, but know that I'm doing this because I know it's a good idea, not because of what you're telling me."

"Your Junos just burnt out, but don't worry. This is planned and you can't avoid it way up there."
"Don't worry? Who says I'm worried?"

"Jeb! Come in, Jeb! Are you okay?"
"You know I don't die. I just can't do it. Neither can this plane and that mis- uh, turbulence I encountered make me."
"Whatever you say, Jeb.."

"Whoo boy! This is fun!"
"What's not fun over here is losing millions of dollars in spaceplane due to what you call 'Turbulence'. "

"Splashed down safe and sound."
"Yes, we know, we can see you from here with our binoculars."
"You gonna bring me some towels after this? My hair got wet."
"And of course you ditched the thousand dollar helmet too."

(afterword: 21:9 aspect ratio looks sooo cinematic wow(after-afterword:I swear I didn't mean for this to end like the intro scene of Top Gun: Maverick, it just happened))

 

Edited June 18, 2022 by JaviAvali
after-afterword added

[JaviAvali]

Beep moop mission 2!
-Name | Fennec II
-Goal | Breach the Karman line.
-Events | Employing Valentina this time after a quick refit, takeoff goes well with a quick ascent up from the ground. During the ascent up which is sharper this time to accommodate the need for only entering space, the thrust limiter on one of the Junos is calibrated incorrectly however this error is brief enough to avoid disrupting anything. Once again, just above the cloud layer, the aerospike's thrust limiter is removed. Soon after, the Junos burn out. The craft performs nominally, but a mistaken pull upwards again tears the craft apart, leaving only the command pod intact. Valentina stays in and exits soon after and glides down safely with her parachute to the sea below her.
-Outcome | Failure

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"Valentina coming in, ready to take off."
"Clearance granted, go right ahead."

"Engine's working real nice, I haven't needed to touch anything up at all. "
"Good, good, remember to pull up at the end of the runway."
"How can I forget; that's my favorite part!"

"Takeoff went perfect and I'm just starting the climb."
"Great, there's no need to ramp up to speed with that aerospike so don't worry about a steep angle."

"Drag's a little heavy but otherwise the Fennec's performing beautifully."
"Yep, that's to be expected at these absurd speeds."

"Alrighty, heading near the clouds. Wish me some luck passing through these, it's annoying when they fog up the cockpit."
"No worries, that plane'll sweat off all the droplets."

"Just passed the clouds and the air's getting nice and thin."
"Okay, keep that angle and unlock the aerospike."
"Will do."

"View's sure nice."
"Don't forget to look away from the sun, the thin air will make the blinding brightness even worse."
"Of course, got it."

"Oh, not again... Val! Come in!"
"Right here and perfectly fine."
"Well, I'll assume you know what to do from here."
"Yep, I got this personal parachute for a reason."

"Alrighty, I just splashed down. Looking forward to seeing a little boat come by, those rides are always fun."
"Always surprises us how you astronauts manage to look on the bright side all the time."
"Well, I can't help it especially since that's how you trained us to be!"

(afterword: i should probably design a new spaceplane to get this first goal done...)

 

[JaviAvali]

Got a new computer, so performance and visuals should be through the roof! Unfortunately, my streak of catastrophic failures has kept up.
-Name | Doe I
-Goal | Send a probe into orbit to establish direct communications.
-Events | A nominal takeoff was followed by the detonation of a solid rocket booster, sending the craft into a retrograde trajectory soon after takeoff. After separation from the boosters, overcompensation for the suddenly absent torque downwards knocked the craft around enough for it to fall apart in the air once again, leading a shower of shrapnel to fall just west of the KSC.
-Outcome | Failure
 

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Doe 1, the flagship satellite. It looks rather kitbashed but we assure you it's capable of orbiting Kerbin just fine.

"Takeoff nominal, beginning vertical climb."

"Report, top shrimp SRB has detonated. We will attempt to maintain the climb but the chance of success is slim.."

"Looks like if we do recover from this, the orbit's going to have to be retrograde. We'll try our best to stabilize the craft while the SRBs burn, and if we get too off course we'll decouple from them."

"Boosters are out, decoupling."

"Shoot, we pulled up too much. I don't think we can recover from this one.."

"What a catastrophe. Let's hope we do better next time."

"Poor sepratrons were overkill for landing and the ant engine doesn't have enough TWR; we can say this is officially hopeless."

 

 

[JaviAvali]

-Name | Doe II
-Goal | Send a probe into orbit to establish direct communications.
-Events | Another nominal takeoff was disrupted by the explosion of two out of the three solid rocket boosters, again sending the craft reeling retrograde. The remaining one was detached promptly and the rocket attempted to continue upwards. The trajectory was however incredibly low and detachment of the lower stage led the probe to fall apart again off of the upper stage.
-Outcome | Failure

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"3, 2, 1, Launch."

"Takeoff is going as planned."

"Oh no, not again.."

"Just detached, however our rocket is not in a very good position. Maybe we can recover this time.."

"We are descending, I repeat, we are descending."

"Okay, our altitude is at long last going back up."

"Goodness, I think we're too low."

"Correct as usual..."

 

 

 

Edited July 7, 2022 by JaviAvali
I forgot to stuff everything in the spoiler.

[JaviAvali]

-Name | Doe III
-Goal | Send a probe into orbit to establish direct communications.
-Events | Seconds after launch, the primary engine exploded leading the craft to fall back onto the launchpad. After a bounce, a bit of the first stage and the entirety of the rest of the rocket was able to be recovered safely.
-Outcome | Failure

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  Though a certification is hardly ever a bad thing, we admit that our previous launch vehicle may have gotten a quite unsavory one.
Certified "Entirely Huggable" by the H.R.A. (Huggable Rocket Association) isn't a very desirable certification. It was made of 0.625 meter fuel tank parts and therefore a kerbal's arms were able to wrap around the rocket, thus allowing it to be defined as huggable.

  Our design and engineering team came out with a bulkier launch vehicle that doesn't have any more solid rocket boosters due to their apparent unreliability and is now, thankfully, unhuggable by an average kerbal.


"Standing by for launch. Three, two, one, ignition."

"Liftoff."

"Primary engine has detonated! We don't have the TWR at all to keep going up, so we'll have to see how much of the rocket blows up when it lands back down on the launchpad."

 

"Alrighty, it's coming right back down."

"Goodness, this is almost comical."

 

[DeadJohn]

  On 6/17/2022 at 8:58 PM, JaviAvali said:

A Narrative JNSQ + Principia Spaceplane Centered Report ...
parts also have Temperature limits ...
Key mods are: [no spaceplane mods are listed]

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Are you using any spaceplane part mods like Mk2 Stockalike Expansion or OPT? Stock parts seem too limiting for a spaceplane game at 2.5x scale.

Your pictures are inspiring me to try BARIS. I've never used it.

[JaviAvali]

  Quote

Are you using any spaceplane part mods like Mk2 Stockalike Expansion or OPT? Stock parts seem too limiting for a spaceplane game at 2.5x scale.

Expand  

 I'm only using the Near Future Aeronautics mod which is an unspecified part in the Near Future Technologies. It adds a lot of large spaceplane parts as well as Restock+ which can add just a few parts that are useful to me spaceplane wise, but I'll look into what you've presented as well.

 

  On 7/12/2022 at 8:51 PM, DeadJohn said:

Your pictures are inspiring me to try BARIS. I've never used it.

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 Baris is rather realistic with failures, but as you've seen they can be very frequent especially when there's no pilot available. Pilots seem to be able to "Jurry rig" fixes for some failures that can be crucial to a mission's success. It's a great challenge, but it does give the game a new kind of suspense.

[JaviAvali]

-Name | Doe IV
-Goal | Send a probe into orbit to establish direct communications.
-Events | Launch and ascent were nominal. Following a late detachment of the drop tanks, the lower stage fuel tank sprung a leak though it was almost empty as well as a declared failure of the upper stage engine. After detaching the lower stage, the upper stage turned out to be perfectly fine. Late after detachment from the lower stage, the fairing was decoupled. Before detaching the upper stage, it sprang a leak as well once it was almost empty. It was detached after a few small burns with it. The probe itself extended its antennae and powered the rest of the flight, engaging a circularization burn after a meaningless failure of the sepratron boosters.
-Outcome | Success
(finallyyyyy-)

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Featuring the Antlion Launch Vehicle, yet again.


"Go for takeoff."

"Beginning gravity turn."

"We've breached the clouds; we're starting to ascent to the upper atmosphere."

"Just ditched the drop tanks, somehow we forgot-?"

"Uh oh, the upper stage engine just failed along with some fuel tanks on the lower stage. Not again.."

"Just burnt out, engaging upper stage."

"We don't see a single problem with the engine, what was that about? Carrying on.."

"Trajectory uplink incoming. Looks good and gentle."

"We've just about exited the atmosphere; everything's going just perfect for once."


"Another trajectory update, almost up to orbit."

"Detaching fairing. The probe finally has some space to breathe."

"Upper stage tank is leaking.. it's almost empty anyways."

"Initiating probe decouplers."

"Extending antennae."

"Trajectory's real nice; shows us we're almost in orbit."


"Circularization burn active. Also, sepratrons just failed but we won't need them anyway."

"Alrighty, for once we got something done right."

 

 

[Watermel00n]

Hurrah! What next!?

[JaviAvali]

  On 7/23/2022 at 12:40 AM, Watermel00n said:

Hurrah! What next!?

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I'm thinking of a semi-shuttle to actually send kerbals to space (some intrepid plane strapped to the top of a rocket) as well as many many more satellites (and relays hopefully soon) to sling into Kerbin-Mun L4 and L5. I also intend to take full advantage of Principia with lots of orbital spaghetti fun later on.

[JaviAvali]

-Name | Doe V (Part 1)
-Goal | Send a probe into low Kerbin orbit to prepare it for further advancement.
-Events | Launch and ascent were nominal again. Utilizing a handy autopilot to take it for a test run in the field, it detached the drop tanks at the perfect time. The lower stage was detached as soon as it ran out while the powerful upper stage powered the rest of the trip though the ascent angle was a bit too gentle, requiring manual intervention. The fairing was decoupled once the spacecraft breached the atmosphere. The upper stage was powerful enough to carry the probe into orbit and have a bit of fuel to spare, proving its effectiveness. 
-Outcome | Success
(sorry for no longscreen this time)

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"Liftoff."

"Separation's perfect."

"Just breached the clouds."

"Jettisoned lower stage."

"Nice and high up now."

"Trajectory uplink incoming."

"Burning upwards a little otherwise our probe'll burn in the literal sense."

"Alright, fairing's off."

"Uplink incoming, almost ready to circularize."

"Engaging engine."

"Nice and safe now, up with the stars."

 

[JaviAvali]

-Name | Doe V (Part 2)
-Goal | Send a probe into the Kerbin-Mun L4 Lagrange point.
-Events | A burn to exit LKO utilized the rest of the upper stage, the booster sepratrons, and the Ant engine.  It reached near the Mun's orbit in the perfect position to enter the Kerbin-Mun L4 point. Another burn brought it into that point, then another optimized the orbit.
-Outcome | Success

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"Mission plan incoming. This is what we've set up for our probe to follow."

"Now in the Kerbin-Mun Orbital frame, setting the barycenter, or center of mass, as the center of the universe for path rendering purposes. This moves with the Mun, highlighting any shenanigans having to do with Munar Lagrange points."

"Here we are. Burning.."

"Okay, upper stage is out. Activating probe engine, and engaging sepratron boosters."

"They just emptied. We forgot to incorporate their dry mass in the delta V calcs, so we have about a thousand more than anticipated. This probe is much more capable than we anticipated so we'd just need to get it stronger means of communications if we want to take it further than Kerbin's reach."

"Current trajectory. We'll continue burning with the Ant engine to nudge it further. Due to the Oberth effect, it's significantly closer than it looks."

"Perfect. Setting the probe into hibernation while we wait for it to approach that maneuver."

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this asteroid is going to crash into kerbin in the meantime-
(we do not care)

"Okay, we're approaching the maneuver."

"Bringing the probe out of hibernation and engaging engine."

"Okay, looking back in the Kerbin-Mun Orbital frame, we're in. We've stabilized into the lagrange point for what looks like a few hundred years through extensive simulation. We're going to try to clean it up and make the footprint smaller, thus further stabilizing it, before we let the probe settle. Burning retrograde to shrink the path."

"Alright, this is about as small as it'll get out of this position, and it'll take weeks to wait for this probe to shift to another. We'll say this is alright."

"Alright, the simulation won't take us any further with path prediction. Seems to be stable enough, though the path does grow in size. This almost reminds me of a Lorenz attractor.. I'd imagine the principles are similar, a tiny nudge or initial difference in position will completely change the position long in the future. Extra factors like distant planets ever so slightly perturbing the path would even further disrupt things."

note: this is a form of the famed spaghetti i've been talkin about

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I hope to eventually get to this point of jnsq brand spaghetti in the future (green means previous path)

 

(with principia minmus is closer to kerbin than the mun so the system stays stable because celestial bodies also experience pulling and can pull others themselves)
PS: if any of this confuses you don't be afraid to ask me to (try to) explain!

Edited August 4, 2022 by JaviAvali
afterword added

[DA299]

L4, L5 points are perfectly stable without needing any course corrections. But I imagine having Minmus closer to Kerbin than the Mun might have some unseen affects that make these points unstable.

 

Question for you: does Principia model oblateness in JNSQ? I know it does so in RSS.

[JaviAvali]

  On 8/5/2022 at 5:21 AM, DA299 said:

L4, L5 points are perfectly stable without needing any course corrections. But I imagine having Minmus closer to Kerbin than the Mun might have some unseen affects that make these points unstable.

 

Question for you: does Principia model oblateness in JNSQ? I know it does so in RSS.

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I don't believe it does. It could, but if it does I'm either unaware of it or JNSQ just doesn't ever take advantage of it.