Recreating the Psyche Mission!

[Kimera Industries]

The 2023 mission to Psyche launched successfully on October 13, using a Falcon Heavy. (I saw it live, so cool!) It's time to do our duty as space nerds and recreate the mission!

The Psyche spacecraft will head to the asteroid 16 Psyche, the biggest metallic asteroid discovered so far. Psyche aims to evaluate whether or not the asteroid is the remnants of the core of a planetesimal that had its outer layers stripped away, leaving a metal-rich asteroid behind. After its launch in 2023, Psyche will get a Mars gravity assist in 2026 and arrive at 16 Psyche in 2029. Thanks to time warp, it shouldn't take too long for you!

Here's how your KSP version will work:

• Pick an asteroid of your choice. Any will do, but no comets.
• Launch your replica with a rocket of your choice.
• Rendezvous with the asteroid and gather as much science data as possible!

Point scoring:

  Launch vehicle: (No spaceplanes. Vertically launched planes like the Space Shuttle will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.)

    1-Any ol' rocket.

    2-Reusable launch vehicle 

    3-Falcon Heavy look-alike. (Central core with 2 boosters)

    4-Reusable Falcon Heavy. 

More details on recoverable Falcon Heavy:

Spoiler

At least the two side boosters must be recovered on Kerbin. Anything more you decide to recover is completely up to you. You may use any method you want to land the boosters, be it SpaceX style, hidden wings, or parachutes- as long as you are in command of the vessel when it lands. Recovery mods that let you go back to a point in time to recover a vessel are allowed. Recovery mods that automatically collect the vessel for you, like StageRecovery, are not. Pro tip: to recover both boosters at once without mods, make the two boosters actually one vessel. With the full vessel, fly up until your apoapsis is at least 100km. Detach the boosters and circularize from there. When you are in orbit, switch back to the boosters (who should still be in space) and land however you choose- just don't forget to account for the fact that they are attached to each other. 

  Psyche spacecraft:

    1-Any ol' probe.

    2-Psyche look-alike.

  Gravity Assists: 

    1-No assists- I can do this on my own!

    2-Any chain of gravity assists.

    3-Duna gravity assist only.

  Asteroid:

    1-Any ol' space rock.

    2-Asteroid in orbit between Kerbin and Duna.

    3-Asteroid in orbit between Duna and Jool.

  Asteroid Encounter:

    1-Zeroing out speed

    2-Circling the asteroid

   3-Circling 3 times around the equator and once over the top, with the distance shrinking with each circle. See here and scroll down until you see the plan for orbiting 16 Psyche.

Psyche will examine if 16 Psyche has a magnetic field, so a magnetometer gets you a point!

Scoring: 

5-7 points: Good work. Mission accomplished.

8-12 points: Good job! You did a challenging mission!

13-15: Awesome! NASA would be proud.

16: Psyche-16! Now that's a nice number.

Best of luck to you, and may the Kraken favor your craft! 

RSS, JNSQ, OPM, and MPE are allowed. Consult me if you have a question.

Here's the mission badge!

Use this if you got 15 or less points:

This is the badge for getting the maximum points, a "Psyche-16:"

I would just like to point out how the solar panels follow the same color gradient as the official badge. See this PDF to see exactly what colors they are.

Spoiler

It's pronounced "sike-ee," not "sike" like I thought at first. Yeah, a little odd, but no one goes around saying the name of the Greek goddess of the soul all the time so it's ok if you didn't know.

Use this to help with your replica, if you choose to make one.

Check other images and renders for visual accuracy, this is primarily for help in the placement and layout of parts and scientific instruments.

Edited November 29, 2023 by Kimera Industries
Added Psyche pronunciation, planet pack rules, reference video, mission badge.

[Kerb24]

Sounds interesting. Are planet packs allowed?

[Kimera Industries]

6 hours ago, Kerb24 said:

Sounds interesting. Are planet packs allowed?

Absolutely! Tell me what it is and I'll look at it. RSS is good, just swap Duna and Jool with Mars and Jupiter. If you have something else in mind, I'll look at it. 

[Kerb24]

17 minutes ago, Kimera Industries said:

Absolutely! Tell me what it is and I'll look at it. RSS is good, just swap Duna and Jool with Mars and Jupiter. If you have something else in mind, I'll look at it. 

I was planning on using JNSQ, which preserves the stock planets and their order (But scales them 2.7 times larger).

[Kimera Industries]

1 minute ago, Kerb24 said:

I was planning on using JNSQ, which preserves the stock planets and their order (But scales them 2.7 times larger).

This is absolutely fine! As long as all requirements are met.

[Kimera Industries]

@Kerb24 Are you working on a design right now? Or later?

I'd love to hear your plan for the plus-shaped solar panels if you have one. My best idea is to use a combo of the large/small static solar panels that unfold with DLC hinges, but alas, no sun tracking. Maybe a kOS script could help, or I could just bother with it during maneuvers while using the ion engine when it needs the most electricity.

Originally I thought I could extend the panels with different length pistons and then I realized I could just make my own makeshift deployable solar panel much easier.

[Kimera Industries]

Took me a minute to figure out how to embed the video, haha...

[Kerb24]

1 hour ago, Kimera Industries said:

Are you working on a design right now? Or later?

I'll probably start on my design in a few days. Currently planning on using DLC hinges, and I'm completely unsure on how I'll do sun tracking.

[Kimera Industries]

44 minutes ago, Kerb24 said:

I'll probably start on my design in a few days. Currently planning on using DLC hinges, and I'm completely unsure on how I'll do sun tracking.

As far as sun tracking, what I'm gonna do is have a servo at the base of the assembly. During non-phys time warp, I will manually align the solar panels to the sun beforehand, and as long as I don't warp too far, (like halfway around the orbit) I will get constant EC. During maneuvers, I will re-align them to the sun again and since maneuvers won't take up a massive chunk of your orbit, only a small amount, the panels will get max EC for the entire burn. Sounds good in theory but Mark Watney taught me no plan survives first contact with the enemy, so I'll test it out as soon as possible on a demo probe.

Worst case scenario, you just warp to the other side of your orbit (around the sun) to face the solar panels the right way again if you run out of EC.

[Kimera Industries]

For posterity, I present:

Making the Psyche Mission: Episode 1

Cursed Robotics Out of Scale

In making Psyche, I decided to start with the probe itself. Placing a probe core, I surrounded it with structural panels and filled my new box with batteries and some small xenon tanks. Psyche has 4 Hal Effect thrusters, placed at angles so each is pointing through the CoM. The Dawn engine is too big to have 4 at this scale, and I don't need the redundancy anyway. To maintain some semblance of accuracy in the matter, I chose to have two engines. Since I would only really use one at a time, since the fact that they are angled means I would lose dv if I used both, I created action groups to toggle them and docking ports so I could control from the center of thrust. Next, I added "greebles" to the exterior, meant to be the cameras, star trackers, etc. Psyche has two "horns" that are scientific instruments held away from the craft via struts, then covered in insulation. (It looks like foil but it actually isn't) You can see it in the pictures. Anyway, I made those with science bits (this isn't all aesthetic) and triangular structural panels. Next, DSOC: Deep Space Optical Communications. I just wanted the look of the thing, so I used two magnetometers for the cylinder and SP for the base. I added an antenna dish, and we were done.  

Except for the solar panels- oh, the solar panels.

Psyche (and JUICE) use plus-shaped solar panels. None of the deployable panels in stock KSP come close, and I haven't found any mods with one either. So I would make my own deployable panels with DLC hinges and static panels. Two large OX-Stats clipped side by side made the right rectangular shape, so I mounted them on a small SP and added hinges and more "panels." I got it to look visually correct, and it could unfold normally- but the panels all clipped through each other. I decided to make a KAL sequence to get a cooler-looking deployment, and the problems began. Whenever the craft loaded in, the folded panels would stay in place, while the hinge connecting it to the craft rotated 90 degrees, in its fully deployed position. Attempting to deploy the panel results in the final thing being 90 degrees from where it should be. I discovered that if I rotated the entire assembly 90 degrees the other way, then it would load in normally. I figured this would be the best I'd get, so I put the array on Psyche. Suddenly, the problems vanished.

Frustrating, and something I've seen a million times before: Problems with DLC hinges, spending several hours crying and diagnosing the problem, and discovering that the solution is stupidly simple. RIP Starship with moving flaps...

I tested out the fully assembled craft (well, mostly) and then

It was this moment

He realized

He messed up

The solar array is all out of scale! It's too small! Way too small! Okay, it's not that bad, but to me, who has spent several hours in the last week on the Psyche website, it's a glaring mistake. Rather than make the solar arrays bigger, which would mean more panel clipping than I was already doing, and redoing the robotics, (which I hope never to have to do again) I decided it would be much simpler to redo Psyche itself but smaller. Instead of 1.8m SPs, I would do only 1.2m ones. The only problem I think I'll have is the Ions being a bit big, and I'll have to figure out a new antenna dish. 

Well, that's all for now, except for the fact that my PC crashed and I lost all the data, meaning I'll have to restart.

Psych!

[Kimera Industries]

For posterity, I present:

Making the Psyche Mission: Episode 2

Miniaturizing and Asteroid Hunting

Making a scaled-down version of Psyche was much the same as making the original, of course, with the benefit of hindsight, I could streamline it more. Packed full of batteries (the solar panels provide enough charge but just in case) and adding some monoprop tanks for the cold gas thrusters, (I forgot to add the RCS itself but I'll do that later) I actually like the scaled-down version better than my original. There's more to add but I'll do that later. Then, I slapped together a quick probe with a telescope and got to work mapping asteroids.

Turns out that asteroids in KSP are extremely unrealistic as far as orbits go. Nearly all of them have orbits that intersect with Kerbin, frequently. If the Kerbol (Kerbolar?) System is anywhere as old as ours, then asteroids with orbits that intersect with a planet's so frequently would impact, become a moon, burn up, break into rings, and be filtered out of the population of asteroids in general. Kerbin should be a wasteland with all the near-Kerbin asteroids it has. No wonder about the big crater, then. In reality, they should mostly be between Duna and Jool, as that is where the biggest gap between the orbits is and also where the analog of Ceres is, Dres. This made finding an accurate stand-in for 16 Psyche rather difficult, as far fewer asteroids spawn in the orbit of Duna, and of course, all asteroids by Dres are part of the Dres-teroid ring.

After an hour of searching, I found an asteroid whose orbit did not take it past Jool, and that didn't intersect Duna's. I built in the ability to grab another asteroid into this probe, so I rendezvoused, grabbed it, and renamed the asteroid. As far as I know, this is the only way to rename an asteroid. I'm using cheats, but since I am not altering the orbits of the asteroids in any way and this is only to find a suitable one and name it 16 Psyche, I'm ok with it. If you choose to do so with your attempt, feel free. At the last second, I decided its orbit was too close to Duna's. (It did not cross the inside of Duna's orbit but if you zoomed out it looked like it was right on top of it.) More searching, and finally, I found it! Its orbit is visibly apart from Duna's, and its distance from the orbit of the red planet means a Duna gravity assist might actually help me out.  I had already named the previous asteroid 16 Psyche, so after I renamed the new one, I went back to the old one and called it 40 Mothball. Not quite sure where the name came from but I went with it. (Perhaps it can be a secondary target after 16 Psyche.)

Oh, I named my asteroid exploration craft Psyche-ologist. Not the main focus but just as important all the same.

Edited November 29, 2023 by Kimera Industries

[kspbutitscursed]

Can i use Tundra Exploration?

[Kimera Industries]

Sure! I assume you're planning to use it for the Falcon Heavy rocket?

Edited November 9, 2023 by Kimera Industries

[kspbutitscursed]

2 hours ago, Kimera Industries said:

Sure! I assume you're planning to use it for the Falcon Heavy rocket?

yes

[Kimera Industries]

I took it upon myself to make my own Falcon Heavy, and let me tell you, be glad you're using mods- it's hard!

[Kimera Industries]

For posterity, I present:

Making the Psyche Mission: Episode 3:

Let's do this SpaceX style

I added the last things I was missing to Psyche, namely RCS. I made it as simple as possible, with a single angled thruster on each corner. I realized that my slightly clipped solar panels are very overpowered even at long distances to Kerbol and I can remove many of my batteries and gain lots of bonuses from the decreased weight. I set up a Kal for solar panel deployment and another I can toggle for the sun tracking servo. I can't remember if this was in my last update but I used a medium landing gear for DSOC, turns out a cylinder smaller than .6m is hard to find and I had to compromise.

That's not the fun part though, the fun part was landing a Falcon booster. The hard part was making and flying it. 

I watched a video solely for the landing gear and was mildly disappointed, nonetheless, I used the design on my prototypes (Grasshopper, if you will.) At first, I used a Kal for the deployment of everything since the piston and the gear weren't connected, but then I realized that if I used the same vessel interaction the piston could actually work to push the gear even if it's not connected. Early models suffered from lag. Improvements suffered from lag. My newest version suffers from lag. My PC is a scrap of paper at the mercy of my need for reaction wheels and suffers from lag as a result. Lag. Blech. 

I crashed several times, and I got more used to using KER's landing tool, though its suicide burn indicator is meant for airless bodies and doesn't account for drag. Finally, I landed without tipping over or exploding something, and it was the BEST feeling in the world. Like, melt-your-heart amazing. It's also given me huge respect for SpaceX and what they've done, truly awesome. Several attempts to merge boosters into a Falcon Heavy were suboptimal, but then, I changed over to 2.5m parts, redoing everything, over the previous 1.8m boosters. I realized, to save on parts count, I could make the gear out of wing pieces, too. The angled effect would create lift, gaining stability on the ascent but not so much lift on the descent as to overwhelm my airbrakes.

Switching to an RCS system for Falcon could eliminate the need for so many reaction wheels, helping with lag. For now, though, all plans are on hold as I try to fix a problem with KSP that almost made me lose my only science save. Wish me luck!

Andrew W. Kerman, Kimera Industries CEO

November 13, 2023

[Kimera Industries]

On 11/13/2023 at 6:11 PM, Kimera Industries said:

For now, though, all plans are on hold as I try to fix a problem with KSP that almost made me lose my only science save. Wish me luck!

Problem fixed! Will install a mod in the future that prevents the problem from reoccurring.

[kspbutitscursed]

will make it on the 10th december 2023 

[Kimera Industries]

20 minutes ago, kspbutitscursed said:

will make it on the 10th december 2023 

Whenever you want to is great! Can't wait to see what you've got!

[kspbutitscursed]

its the 28th of november 2023 KSP Space Systems CEO Kspbutitscursed makes an anouncement,

We have began Intergrating the Falcon heavy rocket ahead of launch to 16-Psyche in just under 12 days from now

everything is looking good

can i use minor planets pack?

[Kimera Industries]

12 hours ago, kspbutitscursed said:

Can i use minor planets pack?

Yup!

[kspbutitscursed]

7 hours ago, Kimera Industries said:

Yup!

cool theres an psyche asteroid in that pack

[Kimera Industries]

1 hour ago, kspbutitscursed said:

Cool there's a Psyche asteroid in that pack

Yeah, that's why I allow it, finding a good Psyche stand-in in the stock game is hard. I did say that MPE (minor planets expansion) is allowed in the rules, my bad if using the abbreviation wasn't clear enough.  

[Kimera Industries]

Here are some screenshots from my development of a Falcon booster.

Spoiler

Those glowing engines are cool.

So satysfying when one lands right side up.

Next to the VAB by coincidence.

Prototype Falcon Heavy.

Yay for landing rockets!

[Kimera Industries]

There is a mod that adds Psyche-shaped solar panels: Near Future Solar. I highly recommend it anyway just because it's cool. So's everything else in Near Future Technologies.