Get With The Program! (RSS/RO/RP-1/P&LC)

[jimmymcgoochie]

I decided to try my hand at the new Payloads and Launch Complexes (P&LC) being developed as potentially the next phase of RP-1. It's rather different to normal RP-1 and so my first attempt lasted about two hours before I realised I'd completely ruined it by hiring far too many researchers and only building puny Aerobee-esque rockets.

This is the second attempt, which so far I've only somewhat ruined with bad decisions.

The settings: Mostly moderate difficulty with a few minor tweaks (no Kerbalism solar storms because they're broken, plasma blackout on, reverts/reloads also on, RP-1 set to Alt-Hist) and my usual rule of one retry per mission- which of course I immediately abandoned on the first launch, but have stuck to since then (honest!).

The leaders: Unlike normal RP-1, the admin building is a critical component of P&LC. It's where you pick your Programs and the various heads of departments that each give you specific bonuses and penalties e.g. faster research for rocket engines, reduced staff costs and so on. I think every leader has two bonuses and one penalty.

You don't get funds from contracts- each Program gives you funding over time and you need to complete all the objectives within the time limit to complete the Program. Programs cost Confidence to accept, with faster deadlines costing more and paying the same funding but over a shorter time period. (Side note, Chelomey is supposed to reduce the Confidence cost to accept a Program but seems to be bugged and doesn't actually apply the displayed discount.)

I picked Early Rocket Development and Suborbital Research, primarily because there's a bit of overlap between those and none between either of them and X-Planes, plus I can fire my starting astronauts and save some funds. (Something I remembered about 2 months in...)

Another change from normal RP-1 is how rockets are built and launched: instead of a single VAB making everything and launchpads that can launch anything under a specific weight, each Launch Complex has to be specifically built with size and (both minimum and maximum) weight limits and each launchpad has to be equipped with storage for all the propellants required, so forward planning is needed when using engines like the Aerobee which use different propellants with different configs. A small LC equipped for little Aerobees weighing less than a ton is cheap and quick to build, but the long term prospects aren't great and you'll quickly run out of things to do with it; in contrast, a larger LC that can launch 10-ton V2-esque rockets takes longer, costs more and has a lot more scope for future use by launching a variety of payloads and completing many of both Programs' objectives. So obviously, I built both.

The first launch from LC-1 and indeed the whole career is the SR-1 "Duck", because the WAC in WAC Corporal sounds like "quack". In the past I've always gone for similar colour schemes- red/white/black for Terranism Space Program and red/white for It's Only Rocket Science- so this time I went for something totally different, trying a few different combinations until I found one I liked.

I only realised later that it's basically the Ukrainian flag.

The first launch went-

-terribly. The first time I tried it, one of the spin motors failed to ignite and sent the rocket spinning in the wrong way until it broke apart shortly afterwards; the first retry had an engine performance loss that meant it was barely accelerating, then I reloaded again and the engine outright failed almost instantly. It went just fast and high enough to qualify as "first launch" before getting range-safetied as soon as I could click on the rapidly spinning avionics unit to trigger it.

Over at LC-12, the first SR-2 "Ikwa" was ready to launch some weeks later; "Ikwa" because it's small, pointy and pretty low-tech. A minor configuration error means it got launched from the KSC launchpad over at Brownsville instead of a launchpad at Cape Canaveral; I moved the KSC there to not have it sitting awkwardly in the middle of the fancy Cape Canaveral that comes with the high-res express install.

No problems with this one, the RD-100 burned for the full duration and sent the payload over 200km up before it came back down and parachuted to the surface. Speed and altitude records were broken and the Karman line objective was completed.

Applicants are basically staff you can hire without paying the hiring fee (300 funds each normally), but you still have to pay their wages. Spending too much on staff too early can quickly chew through your funds and leave you penniless, as I found out on my first attempt.

Much science was gained from the experiments and also returning the payload from space, with the first new P&LC newspaper appearance too.

A nice feature that I'll be seeing more of in future, I hope.

LC-1's team of ten engineers aren't happy that the much larger team of 65 at LC-2 beat them to space, so they decided to try and fling the Duck's avionics unit up to space and bring it back intact. They were so determined to do so that they completely ignored the burn duration limit on the engine, trying to push it past 80 seconds when it wasn't meant to do even 50. Unsurprisingly, it failed- first a performance loss cutting thrust, then an outright failure as it kept on burning even longer than planned.

It also landed in the sea.

Still, moar science is always good.

Ikwa 2 also launched at Brownsville because apparently I didn't fix it like I thought I did. The launch went even higher than the last one, almost reaching 300km, before the payload came back and once again landed safely.

Another contract completed by Team LC-12 after the failure of Duck 2 to do the same. Inter-team rivalry is growing with each launch.

The research team aren't interested in such silliness, preferring to get on with their work. Researching the first rocketry node unlocks upgrades for both the Aerobee (to XASR-1) and RD-100 (to RD-101) but the XASR-1 is only 1000 funds rather than 10,000 for the RD-101 so Team LC-1 got the upgrade. With double the thrust and thus half the burn time, Duck 3 was able to make it to space without overburning the engine.

Mission success, but the Ikwa 2 already completed the contract for it. A bit more science gained but at this point LC-1 is looking less and less useful in the long term.

Having finally fixed the launchpad location, Ikwa 3 launched much like its predecessors, grabbed science throughout the flight and returned safely.

Ikwa 4 did pretty much the same thing, only between those launches I accepted two contracts and cancelled both after realising that I couldn't actually complete them. Wasted reputation, which in P&LC is actually worth something- just don't ask what yet as I still don't really know.

Beware of phantom terrain around Cape Canaveral...

I need 10,000 funds to tool up an avionics unit to control the Ikwa rocket and so complete all manner of objectives and contracts, but that'll take forever at this rate. Cutting down the engineers in LC-12 from 65 to 50 nearly doubled my net gain without having too much of an effect on production rates, but it'll still be 1952 before I get the funds together.

Duck 4 tried something new, sticking two avionics cores on the rocket to get double the science. They launched it west, only to discover that all of Florida is "forest" and nearly all the science has already been gathered flying high over the forest. The next one will launch out over the sea instead.

Meanwhile, Ikwa 5 completed a sounding rocket contract by using a couple of tanks stolen borrowed from LC-1 to hold the sounding payload strapped to the sides of the rocket.

The 100% recovery rate continues, but returns are diminishing- perhaps taking a leaf out of LC-1's book and double-stacking the payloads will improve that?

I was aiming to cover all of 1951 in one go, but at this point I went into the VAB and got a stack overflow followed by a Unity crash, so that was the end of that.

Spoiler

Full album: https://imgur.com/a/SMLy7gk

Next time: I need that avionics pretty badly or I'll be stuck with just doing sounding rocket contracts instead of hitting the Program objectives. Maybe LC-1 will be closed down? Too bad I can't close the hangar, it costs as much as both LCs put together and gives me nothing at all. I really shouldn't have spent all my money on hiring people so early on instead of saving some for that pesky avionics...

[jimmymcgoochie]

Duck 5 copied Duck 4 before it, but aimed out to sea instead of inland and got some temperature data from its dual avionics.

It was to be the last Duck launch and the last launch from LC-1, which isn't giving enough of a return to justify the costs of operating it.

In stark contrast, LC-12 continues to enjoy success after success with the SR-2 Ikwa, racking up a series of successes and contracts completed.

Fulfilling everything for first film return except the avionics requirement is a strong indication that it'll work  once the avionics are added. Due to the longer build times for these rockets, usually 3-4 months each, the funds kept coming in and at last I could afford to tool up those avionics and start building controllable rockets.

The new rockets, named SR-2A "Pila" and effectively an Ikwa with a proper avionics unit instead of a little science core, enjoyed similar successes to their unguided siblings. After the first launch, all Pilas used upgraded aluminium tanks with a better mass ratio and considerably better utilisation as high-pressure tanks than steel.

If the part under the film capsule is yellow, it's an Ikwa; if it's blue then it's a Pila.

The Pila also carries a biological sample capsule meaning more science per flight.

Once the first film return contract was completed, a repeatable version was unlocked which paid out confidence and reputation, though both would diminish significantly with each repeat.

I also took the first biological sample return contract to unlock a repeatable version of that, something that LC-1 could have been doing if I had kept it around and done this contract a few launches earlier. Too late now though, I'm not rebuilding it.

One big contract I haven't yet looked at is the 3Mm downrange milestone, a key Objective and a big step on the road to orbit. Trying to cobble a rocket together out of what I already have resulted in this:

It wasn't successful, but I can't build a taller rocket due to the size constraints of LC-12. I've already upgraded LC-12 to support up to 15 tons, but adding extra height is significantly more expensive than adding extra mass and I have an idea for how to get around the constraints I currently have.

Spoiler

Full album: https://imgur.com/a/NjOtR0S

Next time: Fit a 23 metre tall rocket inside a launch complex that only supports 16 metre tall rockets with this one weird trick!

[MoeKitsune]

I love the Ikea/Ukraine rockets, and as someone who's getting back into RP-1, this new P&LC update looks awesome.

[jimmymcgoochie]

How to fit a 3Mm downrange rocket inside a launch complex that doesn't have a tall enough buildng. Two words:

Hollow.

Tanks.

LC-12 got an upgrade to support 15 ton rockets, but adding extra height was significantly more expensive than extra weight.

Once the first stage was about to burn out, the RD-100's gimbal can spin the rocket up so the second stage can fly straight(ish) to get maximum distance.

A long, thin second stage like this isn't ideal, but it's all I can do with the parts currently tooled.

Meanwhile, a small tweak to the Pila allows it to carry sounding payload for more contract shenanigans, while still returning the science payload and avionics to the surface for recovery.

A change in leadership- Chelomey is out, von Braun is in as Administrator to give bonus rep and confidence from contracts instead of Chelomey's reduced contract reputation.

Maybe Chelomey wasn't happy about being fired, because on the very next Pila launch, this happened:

Double engine failure- performance loss followed by complete shutdown- ended that flight before it really got going and no science was gained, but the payload still landed safely off the Florida coast.

After maxing out the engineers working in LC-12 to 77, the next launch succeeded and von Braun's bonuses kicked in.

This launch also finished off the biological sample experiment and so future launches will get a lot less science. It's not a huge issue at the moment because there's enough on the tech tree to last for the rest of the decade and by then I should be doing orbital satellites.

Now for the first flight of the new SR-3 "River" downrange rocket. I used a random word generator to give me lists of 10 words as name suggestions and river came up four times in a row, so that's what I went with.

The nosecone melted off during the climb, but that actually helped as it means less weight for the second stage.

Success!

The next challenge is doing 4500km downrange, a significant step up in terms of delta-V and requiring a bigger and better rocket. A combination of solid boosters and extra tanks on the first stage wasn't quite enough to get it over the line, but then I realised the contract wanted 50 units of sounding payload too and had to go back to the drawing board.

Spoiler

Full album: https://imgur.com/a/caUuaVS

Next time: New LC, new rocket, new paint scheme, and doing something potentially game-ending.

[jimmymcgoochie]

Another launch of another Pila sounding rocket, only I forgot to screenshot the launch. Here's the science payload on the way back down instead:

An important launch though, as this contract:

Means the Suborbital Research Program is officially complete!

If I finish the Program I lose the funding that it has left in it, but I can start a new one instead. With all that confidence sitting there, I decided to use it and went for NOOOOOOOOO Early Satellites (Light) at fast speed. 

This will require first orbit, first science satellite, first polar orbit, first solar orbit and an atmospheric analysis satellite within 3 years, so the deadline is DON'T DO IT!!!!February 1958.

Completing these contracts will require a few science nodes to unlock the Geiger-Muller counter and solar panels- along with the avionics node that makes science cores use 99.4% less power- which will take until

 

 

 

 

 

 

September 1959.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...I may have just crippled this entire playthrough.

 

But, until that actually happens, I intend to do my best to succeed despite my own incompetence. A new Launch Complex is under construction that can handle 30-ton rockets, which should be enough to make it to orbit if I can get the necessary tech quickly enough; the new Program is paying rather well due to fast mode and every fund I can scrounge up is being spent to hire more researchers in a desperate attempt to beat the deadline.

Meanwhile, more contracts still need to be done and there's a second Program to finish as well, with just a simple 4500km downrange launch required for that. Well, "simple" except for the fact that it'll use brand new parts and require that new LC since it's too tall and too heavy for LC-12, which at this point is getting close to the end of its service life.

The new rocket will be the first of the new OR-series (for Orbital Rocket) but since it isn't technically an orbital rocket yet, it's the OR-0. New rocket class also means new paint scheme, though I can't say I'm entirely happy with it...

Much tooling costs to unlock bigger first stage tanks, new second stage tanks, new fairings for the interstage and (later) new upgraded avionics.

With LC-30 still under construction, LC-12 continues to churn out Pilas which continue to bag bonus contracts.

LC-30 is now finished construction and a lot of new engineers are hired to fill it up. At first the build rate is terrible, over a year per rocket, but soon enough that's down to about five months and will continue to drop as the LC efficiency climbs. A recent research node contained an upgrade that boosts the minimum and maximum efficiency from 15-30% to 25-65%, so hopefully it'll get towards that 65% sooner rather than later.

A major research queue reorganisation has also occurred to push everything I need for those orbital contracts to the very top at the expense of anything and everything else that might be useful but isn't strictly necessary. Integral tanks would be nice, but Sep-Al2 are good enough for now; likewise an upper stage like the Gamma-201 or AJ-10 would be nice, but the U-2000 has enough performance to get by right now and I have a solid rocket node which contains some promising candidates for kick stages.

A few months later, the first OR-0 "Magnum" rocket is ready for launch. The goal for this mission is 4500km downrange with 50 units of sounding payload.

After exploding everywhere just from loading onto the pad first time around, the launch on the second attempt went...

...badly. Solid rocket failed to ignite at liftoff causing a 360 spin, then the rocket almost recovered but rotated slightly too far, clipped the ground and fell over. Now, since the first revert was due to Kraken attack, I was prepared to give the launch another go with the "proper" revert that I give each mission.

And then this happened:

Clearly the Kraken doesn't like the orange-and-green paint scheme.

But after it eventually loaded in without Kraken-y shenanigans, the launch could proceed properly.

The first stage burned for the full duration, then the avionics separated and pointed the upper stages in the right direction, followed by spin-up and second stage ignition.

The third stage is a small solid rocket nicked off an AIM-7 Sparrow air-to-air missile, put to a more constructive use here.

Program completed, but I'll be holding on to this one for a little while yet to milk the funds as the only replacement available is X-planes and I have neither the tech nor the time to do planes, never mind the lack of astronauts or my choice of leaders in the Admin building being entirely rocket-oriented.

Another Pila launch for an optional contract to get some more rep and confidence.

And now Magnum 2 is aiming for 6000km downrange, requiring a modified design that uses two U-2000 stages as well as multiple solid motors. And also ALL THE TANK PATTERNS! We have stripes, we have spirally stripes, we have, uh, other stripes, we have weird box thingies...

No avionics separation nonsense here either, the RD100's gimbal is used to spin up the second stage shortly before separation and then the twin U-2000s kick in, followed by a third stage of a single U-2000 then two AIM-7 boosters and finally some separation motors on the payload itself for a bit of extra oomph.

The rocket smashed the 6Mm target, ending up over 10,000km downrange before it burnt up over western Central Africa.

Shortly after that, the last SR-2A Pila was launched to bring an end to the SR-series rockets and to LC-12.

With that final success, it's the end of the road for LC-12.

Spoiler

Full album: https://imgur.com/a/yWWz6kQ

Next time: Can I complete these orbital contracts before running out of time? What happens if you fail a Program, and can you recover from it? Will the OR-series succeed because the orange and green pattern is so hideous that the Earth itself tries to run away from the rocket?

Edited October 28, 2022 by jimmymcgoochie

[jimmymcgoochie]

Before trying for orbit (mostly because I need the solid rocket tech node to finish researching), there's time for one more Magnum launch to do a 7500km downrange contract.

During testing of an orbital rocket, I discovered that a hollow part can be *too* hollow- making it paper-thin just means it overheats and explodes very easily during launching.

(The second stage hasn't even fired yet, that solid rocket was meant to be the third stage.)

With that particular issue resolved, the simulations were successful.

But that's just for a cheap first orbit; I have polar orbit, scientific satellite, atmospheric analysis satellite and solar-powered satellite contracts to complete which will require larger satellites and more tech nodes, but one thing at a time.

'56-'57 rocketry unlocks the GCRC solid upper stage which will be vital to early orbits; sat-era electronics unlocks solar panels and is a prerequisite for sat-era science which contains the geiger counter required for FSO; early avionics contains a science-core upgrade that reduces power use by 99.6% and shaves a big chunk of mass too, very useful for that solar-powered satellite and indeed for anything meant to operate for more than a couple of hours. Everything after that is too late to make a difference for the Program.

The trouble with the design I tested earlier (see above) is that it will cost over 70k funds to unlock all the configs and do all the tooling. 50k of that is for the RD-103 upgrade, so if I can make do with the RD-101 that's a whole lot of cash I don't need to sit around waiting to save up. The greater thrust and burn time of the RD-103 will need to be made up for somewhere else, so I'll double-stack GCRCs and see how that goes.

Test successful, plus the rocket will be noticeably cheaper and faster to build than the previous design once tooling is applied. Buying HTP powered RCS is 10k funds, but necessary as it's much more powerful, more efficient and denser than either nitrogen or helium which are the other available options right now. It helps that HTP is also used by the RD-101 so the launchpad has the ground support equipment to handle it, although pressurants like helium and nitrogen don't need GSE tanks at all for some reason. The GCRC solid rocket is free to unlock thanks to the magic of subsidies; I asked in the RP-1 discord and apparently it's something to do with how much you spent running R&D while the node was researched, so it's not free so much as you're getting refunded for the costs of researching it in the first place?

With the solid rocket node researched, a spare Magnum was refitted into OR-1 Jeroboam 001, the first attempt at first orbit. I'm using champagne bottle sizes as names for these rockets, so there'll be some interesting ones in future if I stick with it.

Things didn't go well...

A failure quite early in the second stage burn meant that the second engine had to burn far beyond its rated burn time, eventually failing too.

HOWEVER

In your face, TestFlight!

Cheekily combining First Orbit and First Polar Orbit because the rocket had the delta-V for it even with the second stage's problems, that's two out of five for the Program. The "satellite" continued operating for a few hours, gathering all the available mass spectrometry data and sending it back before the batteries ran out.

26th of November 1956, so almost a year earlier than Sputnik. A promising start to the Program and to the Jeroboam's service life, plus the second stage mishap means that future launches will be even more reliable.

A few months later, Jeroboam 2 is ready for launch, equipped with the newly-researched cosmic ray science experiment to attempt First Scientific Orbit.

TestFlight, however, had other ideas- yet another engine problem, this time a first stage performance loss that left the rocket struggling to climb before the engine failed completely. Without the spin-stabilisation provided by the RD-101's thrust vectoring, the second stage was unstable and began tumbling out of control.

Perhaps unsurprisingly...

The mission was a total loss. With the time pressure the Program is imposing, each failure could be catastrophic.

Jeroboam 3 had some modifications, mostly to the payload- instead of just sticking a science-core on top of the uppermost solid rocket, it'll carry a proper cube-sat with solar panels on all faces, upgraded avionics to minimise power draw and more science experiments.

A successful launch into a polar orbit.

A couple of weeks in orbit and it's still going strong, ample power coming in to keep the batteries going and science experiments still recording good data.

It's already June 1957 though, so less than a year left before the deadline. With an atmospheric analysis satellite still to launch, I can't afford another launch failure.

Jeroboam 4's mission was to attempt both atmospheric analysis satellite and sun-synchronous satellite. The latter has a very strict eccentricity requirement that will be very hard to meet with solid upper stages that can't be turned off at the press of a button.

The orbit ended up being slightly too eccentric (0.05 versus the 0.02-0.04 necessary), but was still fine for the atmospheric analysis satellite contract.

And with that, the Program is finished ahead of schedule! There was just enough time left to try one more launch in case of a second failure, but it would have been close.

A new Program is available right away- Early Lunar Probes. It pays pretty well, but I'm taking it at slow speed as developing a rocket that can shoot probes at the Moon will take a while and need a brand new LC with much higher size and weight limits. I might "borrow" some old designs from It's Only Rocket Science and see if I can use them rather than starting from scratch.

Here's how things stand as of September 1967:

1956/7 Orbital Rocketry has a few good engines in it- the RD-108, Gamma-201 and AJ-10, for example- while Lunar Range Communications unlocks a Tracking Station upgrade that'll enable patched conics and 1958 OR holds some engine upgrades and the very efficient RD-0105 upper stage engine. I've started upgrades for R&D, Mission Control and the Administration Building which together cost over 350k funds, but because the costs are spread over time I can do the very expensive Admin Building upgrade slowly over time while R&D and then Mission Control upgrade faster to avoid spending all my money. The R&D upgrade doubles the number of researchers I can hire, which is good because I'm at the current cap; Mission Control upgrade unlocks mission planning (a.k.a. maneuver manoeuvre nodes) and additional contract slots, while the Admin Building upgrade will allow a third concurrent Program.

Regarding Programs, there are a couple of extra satellite-based options on the table right now as well as X-planes, though I'll be steering clear of that as I don't need the extra hassle- and costs!- of hiring and training pilots. At least, not with only one free Program slot, though when the upgrade completes I'll have a bit more flexibility.

Spoiler

Full album: https://imgur.com/a/eRV9afs

Next time: Flinging sub-50kg probes into orbit is simple enough, but how about flinging sub-50kg probes at the Moon?

[jimmymcgoochie]

A short update: plans for a new, more powerful launch rocket are progressing slowly because none of the upper stages available in the next node (1956-7 OR) are any good. AJ-10 is unreliable and a bit feeble, pump-Scud is a bit meh, Gamma-201 has terrible ISP but at least it comes with all-axis control and lots of HTP for RCS use (with extra helium, sold separately).

70kg payload to LEO is barely better than the Jeroboam can manage.

But then I had an idea. An idea that led to me sending a pull request to RO (which was subsequently merged) and then spending a couple of hours restarting KSP to check if my custom Waterfall configs were working (nope ).

See, the RD-108 is hands-down the best first stage engine of the 1950s. No contest. It's more powerful and considerably more efficient than any American counterpart thanks to staged combustion, it has four verniers that give full pitch/yaw/roll control and its reliability isn't too bad either.

There's also a separate part for the verniers thanks to Making History. 35kN, the same high ISP in vacuum (about 315s, streets ahead of anything else) as the RD-108 but in a neat little package. The engine was previously misconfigured and weighed as much as the whole RD-108, hence the pull request to fix it to a more sensible mass and remove a dubious rescale to make it a similar size to the real verniers. The RD-108 is ground-lit only, but the vernier doesn't have this limitation- or TestFlight configs, for that matter, though I might try to add those later to make it a bit less blatantly cheesy.

Four engines are needed because they only gimbal on one axis and using two just didn't work; I might try three at some point soon.

It's going to be expensive to make this thing, but the test sims showed it could carry a full ton to LEO which should be adequate for lunar impactors and possibly even orbiters. It's comfortably under 60 tons, though the upper stage is only just under the 10 ton limit of its avionics so future upgrades will need new avionics too.

Spoiler

Full album: https://imgur.com/a/vtFCIHc

Next time: Actually launching stuff?

[jimmymcgoochie]

With enough tech to at least look at a lunar impactor, I threw one together to give it a test- and immediately ran into the problem of no patched conics until the Tracking Station is upgraded.

Maybe I can eyeball this unguided TLI burn?

...nope.

With many construction projects going at once, I put a few Jeroboams together to get extra science. Jeroboam 5 was first, aiming for sun-synchronous orbit.

And then, because evidently this save was feeling left out after I ignored it for a while, the first stage engine failed 15 seconds before MECO, scuppering the ullage on stage 2 and causing those engines to fail as well.

With the last of the Program money for Early Satellites paying out, I switched to the short but potentially easy Communications Network Program which will need either four Rehoboam launches, or one really big one.

Jeroboam 6 was a copy of 5 and it too suffered a first stage failure, but this time only a second before MECO so the second stage was able to light successfully and proceed to orbit.

It should net a nice little haul of science, eventually- tech level 0 communications are terrible.

Jeroboam 7 was the last of the series and the last launch from LC-30, throwing a bio sample capsule to high altitude over the ocean. Pay no attention to the "Missing Cat" posters around Cape Canaveral, they were there already...

Hey, look! We found that missing cat! How did that get there- what do you mean, "it was taller than that before"?

With that launch done and LC-60 mere days from completion, LC-30 was closed down and dismantled. The engineers got a nice week off before starting back on the new LC, building bigger and better rockets than ever before!

A few simulations of Rehoboam-based missions followed:

Returning the empty capsule? Easy. Returning the capsule with 100kg of film (simulated with lead ballast stuffed inside it)? Incinerated at 60km altitude. It took adding a second heatshield (which melted) to take enough heat that the capsule itself could survive.

Final scores:

Most construction projects are running at a snail's pace to ensure there's enough money to unlock the ridiculously expensive RD-108 when that node is done as well as keep the Tracking Station upgrade moving fast enough to complete lunar missions in the not too distant future. The first Rehoboam was actually completed without the RD-108 attached, requiring a lengthy refit time to plumb it in but keeping the LC productive while the lab caught up.

Spoiler

Full album: https://imgur.com/a/Thb3yyr

1958 Orbital Rocketry contains the RD-0105, the best upper stage available at this era by some margin even if the verniers are puny. With that, lunar missions are on the cards for sure.

Edited December 17, 2022 by jimmymcgoochie

[jimmymcgoochie]

The first real OR-2 Rehoboam launch is a simple communications satellite with a solid third stage to boost it up to the required orbit.

No avionics control on the upper stage and no trajectory planning means the second stage has to reorient itself to point retrograde immediately after reaching orbit so the upper stage is pointing in approximately the right direction for the apoapsis kick.

The second launch followed a similar pattern, only in this case the second stage remained attached to provide ullaging for the U-2000 third stage, required due to the greater payload mass and precision of this contract.

With the launch rocket proving itself, I took a look at some old early lunar missions I used in It's Only Rocket Science and adapted one to work with the extra limitations of Payloads and Launch Complexes as well as the capabilities of the Rehoboam and the available tech. Squeezing an RD-0105 third stage into one ton of overall mass to orbit wasn't easy and the avionics for the upper stage can only control it after it burns its fuel, but the result is a design that can definitely hit the Moon- as soon as I can actually aim, that is!

Without patched conics this Moonshot missed by about 60Mm, but it has the delta-V to get there and the RCS system can correct an inaccurate TLI burn; with a burn time of just 40 seconds to give over 3km/s delta-V, that upper stage will be accelerating hard and so a split second could be the difference between an impact and missing the Moon entirely.

Tooling costs aren't terrible, the RD-0105 is a bit pricey but magic subsidy will cover the entire cost.

Spoiler

Full album: https://imgur.com/a/6nUCt1d

Next time: Throwing probes at the Moon!

[jimmymcgoochie]

The first launch of an OR-2A Rehoboam-L (for Lunar) went, uh...

A quick revert while still on the pad and it was fine second time around. I might switch launchpads, this sort of thing is happening a lot with this one.

The design for this mission is based on one I used for It's Only Rocket Science, however the more stringent limitations of Payloads and Launch Complexes meant that I had to ruthlessly cut excess weight to get it into orbit. Science? Bare minimum. Avionics? Only controllable when the fuel is depleted for course corrections. Margins? What margins?

With a 40 second total burn time on the upper stage, shutting the engine off at the right time by eye wasn't easy, but that's what the RCS is for.

Success! However, it wasn't perfect- the mass spectrometer and thermometer experiments didn't work because they were "shrouded", meaning a significant amount of science was missed.

I might not have beaten Luna 1 to the Moon, but at least I hit it first time- and six months ahead of real life.

75 applicants mean 75 extra engineers and researchers for free, enough to max out LC-60 and add a large contingent to R&D.

A few months later, Rehoboam-L 002 followed in its predecessor's footsteps. A small design change will allow all the science experiments to run this time.

And to finish, a boring old communications satellite.

Bad news: I can only build three more rockets before the constellation Program runs out of time. Good news: I have discovered that I can launch two satellites on a single Rehoboam to complete the 4 sat network contract with time to spare. There are actually three of them on the build queue in case of a failure, because at some point TestFlight is going to notice that the second stage engines can't fail and will break something else out of spite.

Spoiler

Full album: https://imgur.com/a/AR2g8gH

Next time: No updates until 2023, but lunar orbiters when I return.

[jimmymcgoochie]

Having completed a few lunar impactor missions, the logical next step is to trim down that lunar impactor to be as light as possible, strap some solid motors on it and tweak the fuel levels so it's just right to capture into orbit.

This went well enough over a few simulations that two of them are now on the build queue.

But first, launching two payloads in one go:

This required a bit of fiddling to get both "satellites" into the required orbit- which with a very strict 0.004 eccentricity limit, no guidance and fairly high TWR was far from easy.

But after more reloads than I'm prepared to admit...

Contract, and Program, completed. There's a bit of funding left in the Program for now and I'm in no hurry to start something else as lunar orbit will be top of the agenda next.

But before orbiting, one last lunar impactor is ready to go.

Another successful mission.

With the communications network Program having paid out all its funding, it's time to pick a new one. In for a penny, in for a pound I say!

Never mind the fact that I have zero current astronauts, leaders and contractors that don't favour crewed missions at all and at least half a dozen nodes to research before I get even the most basic orbital capsules, just look at the funding! I'll probably go down the Soviet line this time, since I've already done both real and generic Mercury capsules, lunar Geminis and Apollo and will be doing D-2 in It's Only Rocket Science soon-ish but have never used the Soviet options.

Now on to the main event: lunar orbit!

It took some finagling of the capture burn, but the probe made it to orbit and is now sending back much science from lunar orbit. Keeping the thing powered will be problematic as the power-hungry transmitter drains the batteries much faster than the puny solar panels can recharge them, but I'm no hurry for the science right now as the labs have a big backlog to work through.

One orbit later...

I'm not sure what the next Program will be, they'll probably all need a new launch rocket and a bigger Launch Complex- which will need to be human-rated for the crewed orbit stuff- so it'll be an expensive undertaking. I think there's a more advanced lunar probes option which will include sample returns, an advanced satellites one that requires things like Molniya, tundra and geostationary orbits and maybe an early interplanetary one?

Spoiler

Full album: https://imgur.com/a/DlJwbXt

Next time: Only one rocket left on the build queue right now, another lunar orbiter. After that, who knows?

[jimmymcgoochie]

Return capsule testing for the "reach orbital velocity and return" contract, but launching it all the way to orbit:

As with the last time I tested this capsule, it needed an additional heatshield to survive re-entry and the heatshield melted in the process. With the design now ready for use, two rockets were added to the build queue under the name OR-2C Rehoboam R (for Return).

And on the topic of designs, here's a brand new one:

Yup, this is definitely the worst colour combination yet... And the fairing was supposed to be orange, not blue, not sure why that happened.

Following a few minor hiccups in the development process:

The new design was ready, with 3 tons to orbit from a 150 ton launch mass. Not terrible considering this is 1950s tech.

The new rocket requires a new Launch Complex. Initially I was going for a 150 ton LC but then I realised that the prototype OR-3 could be improved by just adding MOAR BOOSTERS!!!1! and would need an even larger LC to compensate; upping the capacity to 200 tons means it can handle a minimum of 150 and so launch the 2-booster version, while the extra capacity will definitely come in handy soon.

Construction of three buildings simultaneously would eat all the incoming funds if they were all at 100%, which probably wouldn't be too bad as I have a decent amount of money in the bank and the OR-3 design uses almost entirely pre-tooled parts.

Spoiler

Full album: https://imgur.com/a/AetPb35

Coming soon: Designing a crewed orbiter. I've done Mercury and the Mk1 pod before, so maybe I'll do Vostok this time- wait, how heavy!?

[jimmymcgoochie]

The Mercury capsule and the Mk1 (stock starter pod configured as Mercury-like) are both less than a ton fully loaded.

Vostok alone is 2.3 tons, not including the service module which is about the same weight and which contains the batteries etc. needed for it to function.

This is going to be harder than I thought...

A three booster version of the OR-3 has about enough delta-V to get it into orbit, but not quite. Neither the Vostok or KV-1 could make it all the way to orbit even using all the (admittedly meagre) fuel in the service module.

Re-entry from almost orbital velocity is still a good test though, one which the Vostok capsule passed despite having no control systems. The capsule appears in the staging list but it's not clear what that does.

A rough landing at 10m/s, but still survivable.

Now, the OR-3 prototype I've used so far has used pre-tooled separate structure tanks to keep costs down, however I could use integral structure tanks instead to improve the performance, possibly enough to get the 400m/s necessary to put the whole Vostok assembly in orbit without using any fuel from the service module.

And sure enough:

Upgraded fuel tanks gains about 400m/s which is exactly what I needed. 

Much of the tooling costs comes from the new 200 ton avionics and the fairings; the new fuel tanks aren't that expensive in comparison and reusing one tank size (2.25x5m) for everything- one on the second stage, three in the first stage core and two per booster- keeps that cost down.

Same rocket but with separate structure tanks that are already tooled, the tooling costs aren't all that much less and the performance is noticeably worse. 

Spoiler

Full album: https://imgur.com/a/hMdNSww

Next time: Back to the Moon, then some orbital return missions to kick off the crewed orbits Program.

[jimmymcgoochie]

First launch in this update is a Rehoboam-LO going to lunar orbit.

Reduced fuel load in the solid rockets resulted in a better capture burn, but it was slightly too circular for the micrometeor and cosmic ray experiments to run as they need an eccentricity of at least 0.04. A successful mission apart from that though.

The next rocket was cursed.

It's still connected to the clamps, the engine was never switched on and got destroyed after scraping across the ground, yet it continues to gallop away towards the next launch pad over at motorway speeds...

It had a similar, though less severe problem the first time I tried to launch it, then this, then the third time around it was randomly floating straight up into the air at which point I just went for the launch.

Which failed due to an engine failure.

That's probably due to using a relatively new and untested engine, but I'm going to chalk this one up to "cursed rocket" and move on.

More Vostok prototyping with an upgraded launch rocket that can actually make it all the way to orbit this time!

At this point I'm just going to run with the weird orange/pink/purple colour scheme. Sorry.

A complete test flight that worked perfectly. There's still some tech to unlock (like storing all the life support resources, for example) and I'd need to hire an astronaut to test it properly, but it's good enough to work with for now.

Facility upgrades in progress:

Now for a few launches of the Rehoboam-R satellite. The first is carrying an advanced biological sample capsule, while the rest use imaging cameras for the photography 1 experiment.

The Kraken left these missions alone, mostly...

Dropped this return capsule right in the middle of Antarctica, but it's October so expeditions could feasibly get out and recover it.

A failure on one of the deorbit motors put it into a spin, but the capsule is passively stable and soon righted itself once in the atmosphere.

With significant science gains from these orbital return missions I've added a number of extra science nodes to the queue which should keep the researchers busy for a good few years yet. The new LC and Admin Building are nearing completion, however it occurred to me that the new LC will need several hundred new engineers to staff it and each one costs 150 funds, so it may be a while before it gets fully up to speed and LC-60 still has some life left in it yet.

Spoiler

Full album: https://imgur.com/a/v3rUHtT

Next time: It turns out that Leaders in P&LC only serve for ten years before retiring, and it's been almost ten years since I appointed most of them...

[jimmymcgoochie]

Today on "yeah, that'll probably work...":

The solid rocket motor is attached to a little probe destined for high Earth orbit to do science and is unconnected to the same old photography probe launched by previous Rehoboam-R missions. The rocket has enough payload capacity to take both, so why not?

After ten years of game time, most of my Leaders have retired and now I need to pick new ones. Of course I didn't notice this until the Admin Building upgrade completed and I went to pick a third Program, despite the alerts in the message thingy- which didn't actually flash up on the screen, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

While not particularly high-paying, this should provide enough to pay for some new engineers to run the new LC-200 as well as taking up a couple of the launches of the new OR-3 Methuselah. Some of the contracts can be completed using the Rehoboam, though only by pushing it to its absolute limits.

New leaders:

Only Van Allen and von Braun didn't need replaced, but I think I replaced them after the initial picks at the start of this save and they seem to have much longer retirement dates than the others which may be a bug.

LC-200 is done, too bad I have a total of nine engineers to put into it which means building a single OR-3 will take twelve years...

On to the first launch of this update, Rehoboam-R 005 with the Hi-Sci bonus probe.

Imaging sat deployed, the second stage was reoriented and spun up before firing the SRM and sending the Hi-Sci probe waaaay higher than I expected.

I'm not sure it'll get a signal for much of its orbit, but at least it'll spend most of its time in high space getting science.

Within a day or so it was time to bring the photos back:

Another ten science returned from space, though getting the last few biomes will take a bit more effort as they're less common and more spread out.

Launching two satellites' worth of payload in one go means double the contracts for one rocket.

The P&LC combined queue is a nice feature, giving a good overview of everything going on at once:

I wasn't kidding about that "12 years for an OR-3"! And since I picked a leader that makes hiring people more expensive (if only slightly), don't have a lot of money to hire people right now and LC-60 still has plenty of life left in it yet, odds are LC-200 will be on the back burner for a little while yet.

Spoiler

Full album: https://imgur.com/a/h4A0KnR

Next time: Designing lunar landers?

[jimmymcgoochie]

Slight change of Leadership: OKB Chelomey replaced by McDonnell. Chelomey's increased hiring costs will be a problem when I plan to hire several hundred new engineers, while McDonnell boosts research for capsules.

Molniya time!

Next up, the last Rehoboam-R:

The solar panel proved unnecessary as all remaining biomes were covered within a day. There was still some film left, so the camera was left running during re-entry until it got a bit too hot and was decoupled mere seconds before exploding. A little extra science is never a bad thing.

I could build another one of these and send it into a suborbital "orbit" to get the flying high images and possibly some other experiments too, but I'm not that desperate for science right now and the research queue is long enough as it is.

Contract ComSat launch gets a nice view of the Moon, Jupiter and Saturn lined up across the sky.

And then the same thing again...

More payload for less reward? Boo.

By setting the construction rate to 10% for both facility upgrades and throwing all the money saved into hiring more engineers, the first OR-3 was ready to launch within a year- not twelve!

The satellite is... unconventional, but if it works, it works.

Aiming for geostationary orbit with an unguided insertion stage using an old U-2000 sounding rocket engine was never going to work, so I added a trim stage on top with an HTP thruster to fine-tune everything.

Close enough. 50 free hires is good, that's 15000 funds saved.

Space newspaper confirms I'm ahead of reality on this one.

Both LC-60 and CLC-200 are hard at work building more rockets, the labs are crunching the data and facility upgrades are, er, happening eventually...

Spoiler

Full album: https://imgur.com/a/YBYrFAY

Coming soon: Moon lander?

[jimmymcgoochie]

Spoiler

You got bullied in school, didn't you?

With crewed missions coming up in the near future, it would probably help to actually hire some "crew" for it. But only one, they're quite expensive and I won't be launching them nearly frequently enough to need a second. Welcome to the team, Rhonda Bell, have fun doing training for the next nine months or so.

A communications satellite launch didn't go to plan:

But a week or so later with a new engine installed, everything went fine.

Next up was a Tundra orbit satellite. The Rehoboam barely managed a Molniya orbit, but a minimum weight Methuselah rocket was more than enough to send the satellite to the higher orbit.

With two completed Programs on the list and years left in both of them, I could leave them sitting there to make some easy money. Or...

Yet another potentially catastrophic long-term decision, but one which I have a good chance of actually completing as the lunar surface exploration Program only needs one science node researched (admittedly it's going to be quite close) and the interplanetary stuff will bring in lots of science as soon as a couple of nodes are researched in the near future.

With that done, time to design a lunar lander. It won't be easy- the braking stage is an unguided, unthrottleable U-2000 and the final descent will use a combination of a generic thruster and RCS thrusters for a bit of fine control, all running on HTP. After a few mishaps...

...a successful landing was achieved.

Well, successful enough. Minimal science payload to maximise delta-V, no solar panels and only just enough battery capacity to last until landing and then transmit the science. It's on the build queue, but so are several other things too.

Much Program funding means full speed ahead on facility upgrades and a healthy profit margin on top. I've decided to shut down LC-60 as there's nothing more for it to launch besides one last rocket that was being built as a commsat but was refitted to the Rehoboam-R spec for flying high science.

Flying around the Earth twice in the upper reaches of the atmosphere bagged a load of data, before the RCS propellant ran out and the return capsule came back down.

The first Methuselah-LL (Lunar Lander) launch was scrubbed due to a booster engine failure:

Spoiler

Good thing MechJeb didn't release the clamps as I was too busy watching a Carnasa stream and not paying attention...

A couple of weeks later with new engines:

And only a moderate amount of save-scumming later:

And it landed the right way up!

With plenty of funding coming in and the OR-3 already pushing towards its limits just launching basic lunar landers, it's already time to look at what comes next. Which looks suspiciously like the Green Fruit rocket I used in It's Only Rocket Science but with slightly different tank sizes to reuse what I've tooled for this save, plus a suitably eye-catching paint scheme.

The test launch managed 10 tons to LEO, which isn't too shabby.

A new Launch Complex is required for this new OR-4 rocket, so I'd better get that going ASAP. It'll also be quite expensive to unlock the new parts, tool whatever needs tooling and rollout costs on CLC-200 are a lot higher than anticipated so I had to turn down the speed of the facility upgrades in order to not run out of money before each launch.

On the plus side, the Programs currently active will pay even more in the near future than they do now so those money problems should disappear soon.

Spoiler

Full album: https://imgur.com/a/HVAa18m

Coming soon: Crewed orbit!

[jimmymcgoochie]

Recent research has unlocked some new engine configs- the RD-107 and -108 don't gain any significant performance increases but they do get some frankly ridiculous reliability improvements with ignition failure rates of just 0.06%, a number that will only go down as they're used. The RD-0109 upgrade also improves reliability to a 0.15% failure rate with minor improvements in ISP and thrust too, which is good news for the OR-3 as it uses three of them in the second stage and usually another in the third stage.

Moon landing number two:

A decent science gain, however the lightweight lander only has the barometer, thermometer and telemetry report experiments as everything else is too heavy, would require too much power to run and transmit, or both. A larger lander that could run more science will need a bigger rocket as the OR-3 is at the limits of its performance just getting the one ton lander and braking stage out to a lunar intercept.

On to something a bit different- uncrewed Vostok test flight, a required contract for the Crewed Orbit Program.

Putting only half the ablator on the capsule saved some weight but it ran out part way through re-entry, though at a low enough speed that the capsule itself could withstand the rest. Vostok is pretty heat-resistant anyway due to the spherical shape.

With that out of the way, the next Vostok flight was the first crewed mission of this entire save- in 1963!

Rhonda Bell becomes the first Kerbal in orbit, staying up for several hours (unlike Gagarin who came back before completing even one orbit) and running some science experiments.

With the science done it was time to come home again.

Much science, 200 free workers for the new LC-400 once it's built and Rhonda is staying for over two years longer; all in all a complete success.

And back to the Moon landings:

Three landings in three different biomes, purely by chance since there's not much I can do to aim this thing.

There are some science experiments still to run in lunar orbit, however the OR-3 is overkill for a mere lunar orbiter alone. There's also a contract to do a rendezvous with a crewed vessel, but Vostok isn't really designed for orbital manoeuvring- but a purpose-built probe would do the job just fine, and is light enough to rideshare with the lunar science probe.

Rendezvous target dropped off, now the lunar probe is sent on its way.

The next launch is Vostok 3, aiming to rendezvous with that target probe one way or another. This mission is also doing a crewed orbit contract and some more crew science.

A bit of orbital shenanigans later...

This would probably be completely impossible in reality due to the lack of windows on the Vostok capsule and the risk of the probe crashing into the capsule. Oh well.

Science done and contract parameters met, it was time to come home.

Another year from Rhonda and more science to add to the collection. All that's left in the Crewed Orbit Program is to do an EVA and a docking, both of which require considerable research to be possible- the Voskhod capsule and airlock and some docking ports respectively.

Spoiler

Full album: https://imgur.com/a/PZ2Vp3B

Coming soon: A new rocket?

[jimmymcgoochie]

Is it still plagiarism if you copy your own work?

Definitely unrelated, new rocket: OR-4 Salmanzar. Any resemblance to the Green Fruit rocket seen in It's Only Rocket Science is entirely coincidence, that used 2m tanks and this one is 2.25m and this one is actually green this time. Totally different.

A test with a two-stage configuration was successful, but only just- LEO with 15m/s left in the second stage is a bit too close for comfort. Adding a third stage adds cost and mass, but added ~200m/s in orbit with the same 10 ton payload so is worth the extra effort.

 

Spoiler

And an outtake from the testing:

This is your regular reminder to Check Your Staging!

The rocket is ready, but the LC is not. Back to OR-3s for now with some Moon landers.

A hard landing due to time warping that little bit too close to the ground, but only the engine and landing gear were destroyed and by that point both had done their jobs.

Future Moon landings will need to go to the far side, which needs a communications network to get a signal back to Earth. This is a job for the OR-4 and newly unlocked Juno 6k engine:

The 6k might not be the most powerful, most efficient or most reliable engine out there, but it's cheap! Do you need more than three ignitions?

Back to Moon landings, now featuring some minor upgrades (solar panels and a mass spectrometer on the lander, more efficient TLI stage engine, stupidly reliable first stage core and booster engine configs) which give it slightly more delta-V and slightly more science.

Somewhere in the upgrades, something went wrong- as soon as the braking stage fired up it began to wobble, wasting a lot of fuel pointing not-retrograde and so not slowing down.

In spite of that, I somehow managed to get the lander on the ground almost intact:

It landed on a hill and rolled for a while, breaking all the solar panels, but it managed to transmit all its science before the battery died so technically mission successful, if only just.

The much greater payload capacity of the OR-4 means a much better lander design is possible, one that can capture into orbit first to pick its landing site with some precision instead of *gestures vaguely at the Moon's trailing edge* there-ish.

Hmm, might need a bit of practice... The heavier lander only carries a small amount of HTP for the final descent and relies on the braking stage for almost all of the descent from orbital velocity as well as capturing into lunar orbit.

And then suddenly it was 1964 and Wernher von Braun decided to quit. He was replaced by Sergei Korolev, whose discounted staff wages almost perfectly cancels out his reduced Program funding.

I may replace him later...

Spoiler

Full album: https://imgur.com/a/vJFn2C9

Coming soon: It's 1964 and I haven't sent a single mission beyond Earth's SOI yet. That has to change!

[jimmymcgoochie]

Future Moon missions will require proper coverage of the far side, so a proper commoonicat- communic- no, I was right the first time, com-moon-ications- network. The relays might not be all that heavy, but sending three of them out to the Moon and setting them up in an evenly spaced high polar orbit will require an OR-4 Salmanzar. Any excuse to try out the new toy orbital launch rocket.

Offset rotation on the three satellites means all three can get sunlight on their side panels and keep the entire craft powered up during the flight out to the Moon. Carrying a dozen TL3 communications systems on the same craft results in a pretty sizeable idle power draw which a single relay's panels couldn't keep up with in previous tests.

This was also the first use of the Juno 6k upper stage which did its job without incident, parking the stack in a resonant orbit so that the three relays could then position themselves for optimal relaying.

With their orbits synchronised down to the millisecond, they won't be shifting any time soon!

Back on Earth, with Voskhod on the horizon it's time to get a second astronaut on the books and trained up for future missions. Welcome, scientist Walter King. Here's the user manual for the Voskhod capsule, the exam's in seven months, see you then.

It's now early 1964 and a Venus transfer window approaches; in my first RP-1 career I sent a crewed mission to Venus in this transfer window, although that was in easy mode and RP-1 has been changed significantly since then, generally slowing things down. Still, better late than never.

There was a pretty big flaw in the probe design- the avionics weren't able to handle its weight until nearly all of the propellant was dumped. An oversight compounded by the addition of solar panels on the top surface of the probe's body that are completely blocked by the antenna when it's deployed, making them nothing more than dead weight. Despite this issue and the tiny propellant reserve available on the probe, the transfer was completed and a small course correction by the upper stage sent it on its way for a nice close flyby of Venus.

About a week later, the second identical probe lifted off. No time to fix the avionics, but again dumping propellant did the trick and it still made its intended trajectory.

Back over to LC-400 for the first of the Mk2 Moonlanders. Heavily upgraded compared to the original with novel features such as "orbiting before landing" and "meaningful science payload", this new design should drastically improve the science rewards for landing on the Moon just in time for all the Moon landing contracts to end; all that's left is a far side landing, which with the new commoonications network up and running should be easy enough.

Time warp related trajectory changes forced a suboptimal capture into a higher than planned orbit, then starting the final burn earlier than intended to land in a new biome meant that the probe itself had a lot more braking to do and not a lot of fuel to do it. In the end, it wasn't enough and the HTP ran out about fifty metres up.

Not for the first time, the main thruster took the brunt of the impact and saved the probe itself from any further damage. Intact, upright and connected to the relays, science came flooding back.

Each mission costs at least 9000 funds to build and at least 5000 to roll out to the launchpad so I need to make at least that much between launches, as well as hiring more researchers to try and speed research up, as well as keeping facility upgrades going, with Program funding that varies with each year of the Program- sometimes quite profoundly- and all three active Programs have different start dates so it's a constant balancing act.

Spoiler

Full album: https://imgur.com/a/pvtF2dK

Next time: Going to Mars and- Mercury?

[jimmymcgoochie]

I was looking at trying the Zenit orbital imaging capsule because I'm doing the Soviet capsules this time, but it's absurdly heavy and power-hungry compared to the ordinary experiment. In fact, I'd be better off launching five of the normal orbital imaging experiments on the same rocket than one Zenit- oh.

Oh no...

KSP was not happy about this- over 200 parts so the launch was in single-digit FPS, it froze for a good four seconds when the fairings deployed and the lack of RCS on the second stage combined with some very slight part clipping meant that the five satellites all got thrown off in weird directions, but somehow it worked and that's good enough for me. It's on the build queue, but quickly got bumped down the priorities in favour of interplanetary missions.

Like this one:

I wasn't expecting a Mercury flyby with this design but the transfer window was pretty good and only minor modifications were required (like those extra fuel tanks on the transfer stage and avionics that actually work). It's a fairly quick trip over to Mercury so maybe it'll have a signal when it gets there?

Between the transfer windows for Mercury and Mars, another Salmanzar Moonlander Mk2 launched out to the Moon; I missed some screenshots for this one and it got interrupted by other missions part way through.

The interruptions came from Venus:

Unfortunately I've once again overestimated the communications range and neither Venus-bound probe had a connection to Earth during the flyby. Worse still, they're both heading closer to the Sun after their flybys so it's unlikely they'll get a signal any time soon. This is becoming a habit, and not a good one...

Back at the Moon, the Moonlander Mk2 ended up in a polar orbit and so the target landing site was the north pole. The south pole was probably a better option considering it's September and so the north pole will soon be dark for several months due to how RSS simulates axial tilts, but I can always go there later.

The lander ran out of propellant mere metres off the ground and landed intact. There wasn't initially a line of sight to Earth, but about twelve hours after landing it appeared over the horizon.

Now for Mars-bound probes, outfitted with newly unlocked tech level 4 communications systems to boost their range. During the refits I added better experiments to one of them, mostly for the solar science than for Mars, while the other got slightly bigger solar panels as an experiment.

Two launches in under two weeks sent them on their way. The first to launch needs a small course correction but the second has a good trajectory and will come back down towards Earth after its flyby which might help get a signal?

After the Mk2 kept running out of fuel and with new science experiments available, the Moonlander Mk3 was created with more fuel, better science and a few other minor tweaks.

It's carrying a visible imaging 2 experiment, which ticked the box for the lunar orbiter and mapper contract and so completed the entire lunar exploration Program.

No point completing the Program just yet though, there aren't any good options to replace it and there's plenty of funding left that'll pay for facility upgrades and/or more rockets.

Following that success, a landing site was chosen in the Mare Fecunditatis and the lander touched down with ample fuel to spare, helped in part by a nice low parking orbit.

With plenty of science gathered and being transmitted home, more research nodes can be added to the long, long queue... Eventually.

Spoiler

Full album: https://imgur.com/a/JeVaihT

Next time: More interplanetary stuff.

[jimmymcgoochie]

Some Discord discourse later and the P&LC branch has now been updated with the latest (as of two days ago at least) version of RP-1 and so can be used with the latest (as of two days ago at least) versions of RO and related mods. This had the unfortunate side-effect of breaking my save as the tech tree had been rearranged and one node refused to accept that it didn't exist any more, but a quick downgrade-cancel research-upgrade-reload fixed that issue.

I also tried adding Parallax and Gas Giants Enhanced but the former made the terrain look like porridge and the latter seemed to break Scatterer, both of which are visible for this next mission: a Moonlander Mk3.

KER lied to me during this mission and said the trajectory was definitely above the hill that it crashed straight into, but a quickload later and a slight tweak to the trajectory ensured that it only touched the ground when it was supposed to the next time.

A safe landing in the Oceanus Procellarum followed shortly afterwards and much science was gathered:

Meanwhile, out in solar orbit:

A signal from one of the Venus flyby missions dumped a load of data back and completed the contract (or at least, it did after I forced the contract to complete since it had forgotten about the part where this probe flew past Venus a few days ago) which means free staff to fill up LC-400.

I plan to wind down operations at CLC-200 but keep it around in case I need it, while a bigger and better LC will soon be needed to handle even larger payloads and LC-400 will probably need crew-rated at some point unless I can squeeze a Voskhod onto a Methuselah rocket instead.

Potentially the last Methuselah launch, at least for a while, is this pair of orbital science satellites heading to low and high Earth orbits. It's been a while since I've used the two-booster configuration of this rocket, but it didn't need any more than that.

One probe was dropped off in low-ish orbit (200x2000km or so) to gather low orbit data, while the other was launched to an apoapsis of almost 800Mm, only just inside Earth's SOI, which may cause problems for communications in future but will guarantee a lot of high orbit science.

I started looking at a Venus orbiter next and for some reason decided to go really really big: an antenna powerful enough to always have a signal back to Earth, altimetry and biome scanning, all the experiments I can throw at it and a total mass of 2.5 tons because that's the biggest deep space avionics I've tooled so far.

Trying to get such a probe to brake into Venus orbit will be a challenge especially since with no MLI I can't use kerolox and most of the other options aren't as good; the most promising are the Juno 6k (which needs high pressure tanks and isn't very reliable), the Larch-2 configuration of the Gamma-2 (also not that reliable but high thrust and lots of HTP to use in the RCS system) or four RD-0207 verniers stolen from the Proton's second stage (the best option for delta-V but also requiring the most research and the greatest unlock costs).

I may have to scale back my ambitions for now as I have no idea how I'd be able to throw this much mass at Venus with a 10 ton payload to LEO.

My attempts to build a larger LV have so far failed as it usually ends up no better than what I've already got. Increasing the payload capacity from LC-400 might not be such a bad idea though, even if it would require some refitting to do so.

Spoiler

Full album: https://imgur.com/a/mgK7gRi

Next time: Probably more design work on the Venus orbiter and/or a new LV.

[jimmymcgoochie]

Who decided that this was the best way to do an EVA?

I had to stick over 2kN of RCS thrust on the other side of the Methuselah's second stage to compensate for the weight imbalance, puny RD-0110 verniers weren't up to the task on their own. How did they manage this IRL?

Back to real launches with another Moonlander Mk3 so I can add yet more stuff to the decade or so of research nodes queued up. P&LC research is significantly slower than normal RP-1 and I think it could probably do with being a bit faster.

This mission was put on hold while in lunar orbit so Rhonda could take a day-trip up to orbit for a contract. With Voskhod coming soon, this is probably going to be the last Vostok mission I do in this save and probably ever; it's just too heavy.

Once the timer had ticked down on the contract, Rhonda turned and burned for home. The target was a landing in the Australian outback but that didn't happen- instead the capsule came down almost on top of Jakarta, Indonesia.

Forecast for Jakarta: patchy cloud with a small chance of spacecraft debris...

Over to Mars now as the first flyby probe arrives. No signal back home, of course, that's just how I do things...

No sign of either Phobos or Deimos, but considering they're about the same size as Jakarta, pretty dark brown and I never got particularly close to either that's not surprising.

A little while later, the second probe (with the better antenna) flies by Mars too, also with no signal (despite the better antenna).

Both probes will head back down towards Earth's orbit, though Earth might not be in the right place to get a signal when they do. Oh well, here's hoping the next Tracking Station upgrade is enough to reach them.

A lot of tweaking and some rush building later, the Venus orbiter is just in time for its optimal transfer window. Rush building in P&LC isn't like normal RP-1: no paying exorbitant costs to boost 10%, instead rushing happens over time with a 50% speedup and a 100% cost increase on that Launch Complex while it also doesn't gain any efficiency, something that could really hurt with a newer LC before that efficiency can build up.

Two S1.5400 engines did significant overburns, though both were within their tested burn times and between that and their 10,000 data units they both lasted the full duration.

Some of the probe's own fuel was needed to complete the transfer burn, unfortunate but inevitable considering the probe plus transfer stage was over 15 tons and this rocket was only really rated for 10.

With a small course correction in about a month, the probe is well on its way to Venus and should have plenty of fuel to capture into orbit when it gets there, though the exact details of that orbit are anyone's guess. The NFExploration reflector turned communications dish is powerful enough to ALWAYS have a signal back from Venus, just ignore the fact that NFExploration reflectors actually don't transmit or receive anything and merely boost the range of proper antennae, a distinction RealAntennas clearly isn't interested in.

New plan for Voskhod:

A small docking target probe opposite the airlock balanced everything out nicely and will fulfil both remaining contracts in the Crewed Orbit Program at once.

No jetpacks though, they're in a different node that isn't a priority. Hold on tight out there!

Spoiler

Full album: https://imgur.com/a/pyRZdaU

Next time: Hopefully completing Crewed Orbit to unlock new and better paying stuff, I need more money and the Programs I have now have ever-dwindling funding per year for the rest of their durations.

[jimmymcgoochie]

The Venus orbiter is well on its way towards Venus, however a course correction was needed to set up the encounter- using up a precious engine ignition and some delta-V in the process.

There's not enough fuel left to capture into a circular orbit so the scanners won't cover the whole surface, but there's still plenty to get a nice low-ish orbit that will yield plenty of science. Assuming the somewhat unreliable Juno 6k actually works.

Meanwhile, a Tracking Station upgrade means that the Mars missions finally managed to send their data home:

Spoiler

I'm using Random Main Menu Bodies which, surprise surprise, randomises what's in the background of the main menu.

Yes, that's the Sun...

Moving on, a one-off launch of a Salmanzar Moonlander Mk4 carrying a small science orbiter along with the regular lander.

The orbiter was dropped off in orbit to gather all its science before the landing.

A landing in a new biome (can't remember which) means even more science, though the research backlog is long enough that it doesn't matter for now. I'll probably stop launching these landers for a while.

Back to the Venus orbiter:

A 200x3000km orbit means the scanners aren't going to work for most of it, but it's a good start and the orbit is almost perpendicular to the Sun so the probe is getting constant sunlight for the entirety of each orbit plus the beefy antenna and Tracking Station upgrade means it can always transmit back all its data in real time, even with no signal for half of each orbit.

I was going to do the first Voskhod mission after that but then the game crashed. That'll have to wait until next time.

Spoiler

Full album: https://imgur.com/a/MIxzJZd

Next time: Voskhod!

[jimmymcgoochie]

As promised, Voskhod:

The docking target and airlock nearly balanced each other out, though the second stage's verniers were getting close to maximum deflection trying to keep it straight near the end of the orbital insertion burn.

The docking target probe was released, moved into dock and- loss of signal just as the sun went down.

Voskhod has no translation and very limited attitude control, however for once things worked out alright as the probe was heading straight at the docking port and managed to connect on the first bounce.

With a total of 7m/s, the probe won't be any use for orbital manoeuvring but its RCS will be a useful addition to eke out the puny reserves of nitrogen on the service module.

Next on the agenda is an EVA:

Both Rhonda and Walter got a chance to do an EVA, though they had to hang on tight to avoid floating away into space as there would be no way to get them back.

Several days later, with the science done and duration records broken, it was time to come back home.

With that done, some changes need to be made. First off, I need a new science Leader since Van Allen retired:

Then I hired an extra duo of astronauts to allow more frequent crewed flights and also enable one of the crew experiments which requires an engineer:

They'll be ready to fly in about a year.

Then a few months later I decided to switch up the Programs to get a significant injection of funding:

I've decided that the end goal of this playthrough will be completing the Crewed Lunar Exploration Program, requiring no less than three lunar landings. There isn't a lot of content beyond this point, a big limitation of P&LC in its current state.

I also went back and completely reprioritised the research queue, pushing for better rocket engines so I can build a bigger and better launch rocket for those lunar missions and unlock the other necessary tech as soon as possible. All the facilities that can be upgraded are being done at 100% speed and yet I'm still making a tidy profit thanks to the new Programs' generous funding. There are two Mars orbiters on the build queue for the next transfer window, though I may delay those a bit to try and get a Mercury mission away; three more Voskhod missions are also on the queue, though only one will carry the airlock and docking target probe as the other two will be purely for the science.

Spoiler

Full album: https://imgur.com/a/kM6hMpK

Next time: New LV design?