The Sky is Not the Limit - UPDATE: NEW THREAD OUT!

[Kerbalsaurus]

  On 11/26/2023 at 8:15 PM, TwoCalories said:

Shortly after the first orbit, however, a problem revealed itself. The KSC engineers had underestimated just how much Electric Charge the station consumed as it went around its orbit. On the sunlit side of the planet, it was fine, as the large solar arrays provided plentiful power. On the dark side, however, the station ran out of EC before it was even halfway to sunlight! The crew evacuated to the Roadhouse-2 CSM and remained docked as Mission Control assessed the situation. It seemed that a power module would be needed. The engineers quickly began planning the construction of a new module stuffed with batteries. It would also contain extended life support, and maybe a docking node.

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It looks like you have quite a few SAS units on the side there. Is that why it's consuming so much power?

  On 11/26/2023 at 8:15 PM, TwoCalories said:

@Kerbalsaurus gets a cookie for correctly guessing the payload of the Jovian-5C in the earlier post.

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Yay!

Edited November 26, 2023 by Kerbalsaurus
The page might be new, but I'llhave to double check.

[TwoCalories]

  On 11/26/2023 at 8:28 PM, Kerbalsaurus said:

It looks like you have quite a few SAS units on the side there. Is that why it's consuming so much power?

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I don't particularly have many SAS units on there. I have four radial-mount reaction wheels (from Restock+, I believe), two small probe cores, and two small SAS units. Most of those are pretty hidden away or in a service bay though, so I'm wondering if you're mistaking one of the other parts for an SAS unit? Which parts were you referring to?

[Kerbalsaurus]

  On 11/26/2023 at 8:55 PM, TwoCalories said:

I don't particularly have many SAS units on there. I have four radial-mount reaction wheels (from Restock+, I believe), two small probe cores, and two small SAS units. Most of those are pretty hidden away or in a service bay though, so I'm wondering if you're mistaking one of the other parts for an SAS unit? Which parts were you referring to?

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I mean those 6 light gray things on the side.

[Kimera Industries]

  On 11/26/2023 at 9:47 PM, Kerbalsaurus said:

I mean those 6 light gray things on the side.

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I don't have Restock (I'll be getting it soon) but to me, they look spherical, like monoprop tanks.

Congrats to Raptor Aerospace for getting this opportunity! I'm excited to see where they go!

Roadhouse Station looks promising, too! Will anything like BEAM or Axiom Orbital Segment (private ISS modules) be in submissions in the future?

[TwoCalories]

  On 11/26/2023 at 9:47 PM, Kerbalsaurus said:

I mean those 6 light gray things on the side.

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  On 11/26/2023 at 10:24 PM, Kimera Industries said:

to me, they look spherical, like monoprop tanks.

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What Kimera said. On the other side, there's two more sets of monoprop tanks. I'm pretty sure the EC drainage comes from having to run the Kerbalism life support systems, though.

  On 11/26/2023 at 10:24 PM, Kimera Industries said:

Roadhouse Station looks promising, too! Will anything like BEAM or Axiom Orbital Segment (private ISS modules) be in submissions in the future?

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There will be, but probably not on Roadhouse Station, because SS Roadhouse is going to eventually be succeeded by a more ISS-alike station. At least, that's the plan.

[Kimera Industries]

  On 11/27/2023 at 1:04 AM, TwoCalories said:

There will be, but probably not on Roadhouse Station, because SS Roadhouse is going to eventually be succeeded by a more ISS-alike station.

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Will Roadhouse be deorbited when this happens or just left in orbit?

[TwoCalories]

  On 11/27/2023 at 1:56 AM, Kimera Industries said:

Will Roadhouse be deorbited when this happens or just left in orbit?

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I'm not sure, probably the latter. SS Roadhouse still has a fair amount of time though. It'll see at least two major expansions, with crews staying 100 days each, so don't worry.

Edited November 27, 2023 by TwoCalories

[Maria Sirona]

Name suggestion for the future modular station: Halfway Station. As in when you have reached orbit, you have reached halfway to anywhere

[TwoCalories]

This Week at KASA: Housekeeping

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While the Roadhouse battery module was underway, the MOSS satellites headed out to the Mun. This batch of sats would form a four-satellite constellation in an inclined, low orbit of the Mun.

The circularization burn was finished, and not a moment too soon. The glowing yellow engine is from a Kerbalism engine malfunction.

All four MOSS satellites are deployed.

***

Only a week later, the "Batt-Man" battery module for SS Roadhouse was completed. How we constructed it was actually quite clever. You see, all the way back in 1966, a program named Project Gallant was initiated. The plan was that it would be a two-seater spacecraft in the 1.875m diameter. It was supposed to bridge the gap between the Pathfinder and Trinity programs and be able to fly missions such as servicing Scout satellites and doing the first Mun and Minmus flybys. Unfortunately, the program was cancelled the following year due to KASA diverting resources toward developing the Trinity program, a gamble that ultimately paid off.

However, a few test articles and some flight-ready Gallant spacecrafts had been constructed by then. They'd just been left in a warehouse to gather dust until they got a new purpose. The engineers kitbashed together a Gallant Service Module, a Gen-1 LEM's monopropellant tanks, a Trinity CSM's batteries (lots of them), and a docking node originally designed for another module. The last one was to provide room for expansion on SS Roadhouse.

The Batt-Man module would be accompanied by a small delivery stage, designed to give the module probe control and propulsion.

The small monoprop reserves made docking quite tricky, but it was done. Funnily enough, the dock happened just as Roadhouse ran out of electricity.

The delivery stage floats away, now that its purpose has been fulfilled. It will deorbit itself with its own engine and its remains would crash down harmlessly in the ocean.

The delivery tug reentering.

After docking, the crew spent the next orbit still taking refuge in the Roadhouse-2 CSM to make sure the module had enough batteries to allow the station to survive the night side of the planet. The Batt-Man more than doubled the power reserves, so it was no surprise that SS Roadhouse made it to orbital sunrise with the lights on all the way there. The crew will now resume operations as normal, which Bob is extremely glad about, since during the emergency evacuation, he'd forgotten his crosswords in the hab module.

And so, station life goes on. Since the docking of the battery module, the crew spent twenty more days in space, bringing their total to about 25 days. Only 75 more days to go, crew! Hang in there...

 

Edited March 4, 2024 by TwoCalories

[TwoCalories]

  On 12/3/2023 at 12:19 AM, TwoCalories said:

a program named Project Gallant was initiated. The plan was that it would be a two-seater spacecraft in the 1.875m diameter.

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Does anyone else remember this? Because way, way, back, there were in fact a few snippets and teasers here and there alluding to such a space capsule.

[Kimera Industries]

  On 12/3/2023 at 12:30 AM, TwoCalories said:

Does anyone else remember this? Because way, way, back, there were in fact a few snippets and teasers here and there alluding to such a space capsule.

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Can't say I do but it sounds like Gemini to me.

[Kerbalsaurus]

  On 12/3/2023 at 12:30 AM, TwoCalories said:

Does anyone else remember this? Because way, way, back, there were in fact a few snippets and teasers here and there alluding to such a space capsule.

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I remember. I was honestly kind of sad at first, but it did still lead to a good story.

[Royalswissarmyknife]

  On 11/25/2023 at 5:48 PM, TwoCalories said:

Unfortunately, tomorrow has arrived. The rideshare payload submissions are now closed. @Royalswissarmyknife, I'm really sorry that I had to end the event before you could finish your submission, but there will be more craft submission opportunities in the future. I learned a lot from this rideshare event, and I'll apply these lessons to the future submission events to make it go a bit more smoothly than this one.

I'll select the winner of the rideshare event via chance, and I'll make sure it's fair for the two contenders. The selected craft will be revealed in the next chapter.

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I should have responded to this earlier but oh well.

I couldn't really make any probe that I was fully proud of with the limited tech level that there was combined with having to develop Kapstone and another Beyond related project at the same time.

I really like the probes that did get submitted though and I think there better then what I could have made. Congrats to @Kerbalsaurus on having MOSS be selected!

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If I did actually end up finishing my probe it would probably be similar to the BlueJay.

 

Edited December 8, 2023 by Royalswissarmyknife

[TwoCalories]

No chapter this week. I've reached a slow point in my progression where the transfer windows for Eve and Duna are both at least a year away, and the only place to really go is SS Roadhouse, and not even that, because I've got to wait 100 days before the next crew rotation.

That being said, there is... another project that I can do in this slow point of progression, but it'll take a lot of preparing. So stay tuned, and I'll see you in the next update!

[Kimera Industries]

  On 12/11/2023 at 3:32 AM, TwoCalories said:

I've reached a slow point in my progression where the transfer windows for Eve and Duna are both at least a year away.

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No time warp? How do you ever get anywhere? 

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The eyebrow raise emoji's eyebrow is too thick... sigh...

[TwoCalories]

  On 12/11/2023 at 11:36 PM, Kimera Industries said:

No time warp? How do you ever get anywhere? 

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I tend to try and make as much as I can out of the time between transfer windows rather than just warping away. I would run some other missions in the meantime but like I said, SS Roadhouse is really the only place to go now.

[Kimera Industries]

  On 12/12/2023 at 12:37 AM, TwoCalories said:

I would run some other missions in the meantime but like I said, SS Roadhouse is really the only place to go now.

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Looks like some expansions are in order, then. Kerbals always appreciate more snack storage living area. Science lab? Dedicated sleeping compartments? With 100 days to spare, the possibilities are endless. I mean, not really, but there are a lot of options when you take into account expanding what you already have. And you could always launch another station, Salyut-style.  

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Currently studying Salyut as the basis for the Minmus station, haha. It'll be FreeIVA compatible, for once.

Edited December 12, 2023 by Kimera Industries

[TwoCalories]

No one:

Literally no one:

Not a single soul:

TwoCalories: a TeASer? tRy aNd GuEsS thE rOckET! cOmINg SoOn tO a chApTeR neAr yOu!

[Kerbalsaurus]

  On 12/16/2023 at 7:47 PM, TwoCalories said:

No one:

Literally no one:

Not a single soul:

TwoCalories: a TeASer? tRy aNd GuEsS thE rOckET! cOmINg SoOn tO a chApTeR neAr yOu!

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TITAN!!!!!!!

[TwoCalories]

  On 12/16/2023 at 8:08 PM, Kerbalsaurus said:

TITAN!!!!!!!

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It was inspired by the Titan, but I meant more like what the rocket was built for, and what's inside that fairing.

[Kimera Industries]

  On 12/16/2023 at 9:13 PM, TwoCalories said:

It was inspired by the Titan, but I meant more like what the rocket was built for, and what's inside that fairing.

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My first thought was Delta IV Heavy...

Perhaps... a Munar probe?

[Kerbalsaurus]

I’m gonna guess interplanetary. TwoCal said something about incoming transfer windows earlier I think.

[Kimera Industries]

  On 12/16/2023 at 11:40 PM, Kerbalsaurus said:

I’m gonna guess interplanetary. TwoCal said something about incoming transfer windows earlier I think.

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Alright, then- Duna! Maybe I'll be right this time!

[Royalswissarmyknife]

  On 12/16/2023 at 7:47 PM, TwoCalories said:

No one:

Literally no one:

Not a single soul:

TwoCalories: a TeASer? tRy aNd GuEsS thE rOckET! cOmINg SoOn tO a chApTeR neAr yOu!

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Apteryx-3.  

[Kerb24]

I should have suggested this earlier, but since the Soviets wanted to do more cooperative missions, maybe to pass the time until a transfer window they could launch a module to Space Station Roundhouse? (Apologies if something prevents this that I didn't consider)