VeraTech - An LSR Space Agency Race To The Nearest Habitable Planet!

[RevanX_LSR]

This has been repurposed from the original playthrough.

https://spacedock.info/mod/3434/Linbol System Rebirth

DISCLAIMER: I do not recommend you download this mod for Career as is is torturously difficult with low science multipliers and only biome support for Revan.

We're going here.

 

One of the most prized bodies in LSR is Vera, a habitable world with mostly oceans that harbors a ring system. (Perbi also has the same properties, but since it's quite large and cold it's mostly inhospitable for Kerbals). Orbiting even closer to the homeworld Revan than Eve is to Kerbin, transfers are few and far between but come at a low delta-v. Still, with the super-earth homeworld and 2.5x scale, 16200m/s delta-v for a return trip.

 

2 space agencies (names revealed later) agreed to participate in a race to land a Kerbal there and return. It's in sandbox mode but with deliberate progression as well as crew morale and life support all manually factored in (i could send a craft with one Kerbal in an MK1 pod if I wanted but for the sake of progression the interplanetary transfers will take place on space stations)

 

Mod release page

Chapter 0: The details

In this chapter I will explain the details.

 

LSR scales the system up 2.7x (1/4 real life) and sends you to a super-earth called Revan. It is 2.16x heavier than Kerbin and has a G-force 1.4x that of Kerbin, and an atmosphere of 2.9atm, with the space center being very low lying. There are 15 biomes for science though many are rare, and low orbit velocity exceeds 5km/s.

 

The innermost planet receives more light than Moho does at Perihelion by a factor of 10 while the outermost one orbits the star every 500-ish years. The main Linbol star binary has a mass of1.5 sun masses and a luminosity of 1.8, resulting in delta-v similar to JNSQ. Revan orbits rather far away from the stars to neutralise greenhouse effect, and many of the planets are interesting in their own right or have moons that are such.

 

With all those grand challenges ahead, which of the two space agencies make it to Vera and back with kerbals first?

 

Details

Month system: Revan uses a 505-day year with 12 months and one 'new year' day.

Month	Start	End
New Year	1	1
January	2	43
February	44	85
March	86	127
April	128	169
May	170	211
June	212	253
July	254	295
August	296	337
September	338	379
October	380	421
November	422	463
December	464	505

Basically every month is 42 days except new year's day which is new year's day  !!!!!!

 

Mission elapsed time still in usual format.

 

2 Agencies

The Kerbal States

The United Union

very original names!
 

Milestones:

 

Unmanned

U1 - Achieve a suborbital flight. [1]

U2 - Achieve orbit. [2]

U3/4 - Land on 101000 or 102000 [1 each]

U5 - Land on canyon [2]

U6 - Flyby Vera. [2]

U7 - Land on vera. [3]

Manned

M1 - Achieve a suborbital flight. [1]

M2 - Achieve orbit. [3]

M3/4 - Land on 101000 or 102000 [2 each]

M5 - Land on canyon [4]

M6 - Flyby Vera. [2]

M7 - Land on Vera and Return. [WIN]

 

Total score: 26 points before M7.

 

(Flag must be planted, return trip to get points)

Delta-V requirements:

Orbit Revan: 7500m/s

Revan Escape: 2120m/s

Transfer to vera: 70m/s

(Aerocapture+Landing 0 m/s)

Ascent: 4800m/s

Vera Escape: 1590m/s

Transfer to Revan: 110m/s

(Aerocapture+Landing 0 m/s)

Total: 16190m/s (19000m/s for margin of error and correction).

 

Edited September 22, 2023 by RevanX_LSR

[RevanX_LSR]

Chapter 1: The Race To Space

New Year 1951

 

On this very day, Kerbal States Space Center (KSSC) and United Union Space Center (UUSC) have opened and will be funded an equal budget 10 times that of NASA. How fast can they make it to Vera? (Each agency gets $5000 a day from 1951 to 1955 and $10000 from 1956 onward)

 

Kerbal States Space Center - Jan 5 1951

First Test of Orbital Rocket

After using almost all their funding on research and designing of the 34 ton lifter, the Revan 1 Launcher was ready for liftoff.

Revan 1 is the first spacecraft to reach space!

Unfortunately, due to a loss off delta-v due to ISP issues in the dense atmosphere, the orbiter failed to orbit Revan but transmitted back some very juicy science that will help them progress.

 

1951 Jan 6 Statistics:

KS/UU

$7600/$22500

1pt/0pt

Edited September 18, 2023 by RevanX_LSR

[RevanX_LSR]

1951, January 25

United Union Space Base

The all new Orbiter 1 rocket has been unveiled. Heavily based off those from Kerbal States, this rocket is much heavier and much less payload but with the ability to re-ignite engines (shutdown and re-ignite but not throttle) and re-enter the atmosphere, although it's unlikely the payload will survive...

(yes, I know. IRL re-igniting engines is not so easy, but these agencies have the budget of the US military, so research is obviously happening a lot faster)

SRBs have been staged. Shortly before staging

Now in space.

The new low thrust lightweight engines will carry us the rest of the way to orbit. No idea why these are unlocked so late in the stock tech tree. Just KSP's tech tree I guess - Liquid fuel engines with thrust vectoring, alternator and throttalable+re-ignitable are available before the probe core, and NERVAs are unlocked at the same level as a seat.

Now in orbit!

After decelerating, the craft is re-entering. Don't worry, the cargo bay is heat-resistant.

Opening the bay doors for even more drag (re-entry was 4300m/s relative to the surface, over 300m/s DV left in orbit)

Angling this way gives the most drag. This combined with the dense atmospheres means we're going very slowly.

Splashdown. And tragically on my last screenshot I ran out of uploads (there's no warning). (It was confirming that only the nose cone was destroyed and the flight stats for the mission)

highest speed achieved (surface): 4799m/s

Max altitude: 87km

Downrange distance (rather total distance): 26000km

Max-g: 12.9g (during re-entry)!

Edited September 23, 2023 by RevanX_LSR

[RevanX_LSR]

Next upload soon! (repurposed the previous reply)

Edited September 23, 2023 by RevanX_LSR