A DIRECT Transition - If Jupiter DIRECT Took to the Skies

[Toaster355]

October 30th, 2012
Ares 2 | High Altitude Abort Test

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Nearly 7 months after CFT-1, on Halloween Eve, a third Jupiter-120 is rolled out with Orion 002 on top.
The Launch Abort System will be put to the test today. Engineers (and the world) will discover if it can bring a crew to safety from a malfunctioning rocket.

"Main engine ignition."
The flight director's voice echoes across the Floridan coast.

"LIFTOFF!"

"Roll program has started, turning the vehicle to the correct heading for it's short flight."

"And we have reached max Q, the point in the flight where Jupiter's main engines throttle down as the rocket experiences maximum aerodynamic stress."

"Almost 1 minute and 30 seconds into the flight now. Standing by for the CEV's abort."

"Abort motors are lit. FTS has been activated."

"FTS has destroyed the rocket and our CEV is safe!"

The CEV steers itself using the powerful RCS at the top of the LAS.

After about 7 seconds, the LAS runs out of propellent but does not detach to ensure the CEV stays aerodynamic as it passes through the atmosphere.

"Orion flips over before a safe jettison of the LAS."

"Standing by for LAS jettison."

CEV-002 is revealed, after being hidden by the LAS for most of the flight. This is the final flight of a black-tiled variant of these capsules.
Coasting for another couple minutes before kissing the atmosphere again.

Keeping itself oriented with it's own thrusters.

The forward heat shield pops off and the twin drogue chutes are deployed, followed by the main chutes shorty after.

"And a safe splashdown of Orion 002!"
The capsule is now fully crew-rated, and ready for a crewed test flight next year!

Edited August 5 by Toaster355
Second page! Wow!

[Kerballlistic07]

Every time there’s a new post, I wish Jupiter DIRECT were real! 

[TwoCalories]

Can't wait for the first crewed flight!

Also, @Toaster355, I tried out the Kabrams White sunflare, but it looks very different in my install then in yours. I use the stock solar system, if that changes anything.

[Toaster355]

On 11/12/2023 at 11:18 AM, TwoCalories said:

Can't wait for the first crewed flight!

Also, @Toaster355, I tried out the Kabrams White sunflare, but it looks very different in my install then in yours. I use the stock solar system, if that changes anything.

Sorry for the late response!
I don't think I use his white one, I'm pretty sure I use his high diamond sunflare. But I'm not sure, I'll check once I'm out of school.

Edited November 14, 2023 by Toaster355

[TwoCalories]

Sorry to be so question-y again, but I've been meaning to ask how you made the boilerplate Orion capsule. Is it included with a mod or did you make it yourself?

[Toaster355]

1 hour ago, TwoCalories said:

Sorry to be so question-y again, but I've been meaning to ask how you made the boilerplate Orion capsule. Is it included with a mod or did you make it yourself?

Nah that's okay, I love sharing with you all how I do my stuff.

I used conformal decals, haha.
I created a flag in completely light-gray, put it on a decal with a really high depth, and made it large enough to cover the entire capsule.

Also something I forgot to say when making the first mission here, is I was sorry for a docking hatch being on top. Don't know why I thought putting one of those on a boilerplate would make any sense.

[Toaster355]

The first post has received it's second major update.

____________________

 

On 11/14/2023 at 8:35 AM, Toaster355 said:

Sorry for the late response!
I don't think I use his white one, I'm pretty sure I use his high diamond sunflare. But I'm not sure, I'll check once I'm out of school.

Actually... nope. I was using the default Scatter sunflare, haha. How does that look for you?

Edited November 16, 2023 by Toaster355

[Toaster355]

(Click the image for more screenies!)

Hello everyone!
I had NO idea how much I left out and got wrong about DIRECT until I watched Jupiter DIRECT: LIVE and read through the DIRECT website.
For example, the Jupiter-120, which was in 2 missions (which I even had to completely rename the one in CFT-1, because I was an idiot and used a 120 when it very much should've have been a 130) was never going to fly. Only the Jupiter-130 and Jupiter-246 were the recommended and picked versions of the DIRECT team. The Shuttle wouldn't have retired until 2011, as it did in IRL, and it would have been extended by 2 missions to close the workforce "gap" even further.
I'm starting to think... I should completely redo the timeline, without Freedom in it. I think you can see now how my timeline conflicts a LOT of what would've happened if DIRECT was picked in 2009.

I want to restart, but it will set us back several missions. And before I restart, I want to look at little more at DIRECT and what the timeline would have been.

What do you think?

Edited November 19, 2023 by Toaster355

[TwoCalories]

15 hours ago, Toaster355 said:

I'm starting to think... I should completely redo the timeline, without Freedom in it. I think you can see now how my timeline conflicts a LOT of what would've happened if DIRECT was picked in 2009.

I don't think you should restart the whole thing. I think a lot of us were looking forward to Orion x Freedom, and besides, it's an alternate history! You should have some fun with it, and since DIRECT never happened, you could take a few artistic liberties here and there, I think.

[Toaster355]

On 11/19/2023 at 12:36 PM, TwoCalories said:

I don't think you should restart the whole thing. I think a lot of us were looking forward to Orion x Freedom, and besides, it's an alternate history! You should have some fun with it, and since DIRECT never happened, you could take a few artistic liberties here and there, I think.

Yeah... good point. That would be a big letdown for many of you I'm sure. And that is true, I cannot find a proper timeline so it was always destined to mess some things up. Thanks for your feedback

And I'm sorry for being so inactive, still suffering from a bit of burnout. However...
I just upgraded to 32 gigs of RAM now, which has made loading times so, so much faster and easier on my PC. I have a new SSD on the way too, so KSP is and will be much more fun and bearable!

You can realistically expect the next mission update in 2 to 3 days. EDIT: Nope! I got much more done yesterday than I expected, so you can expect it today or tomorrow! Rare occurrence were something related to spaceflight is early, haha.

I want mission updates to be shorter. I know I've said this before, but this time I really mean it. After the next flight, mission updates will be just over/less than half and possibly almost a third as long as the one I'll soon post.
DIRECT was so versatile and had so many missions planned, it's going to get repetitive real quick if I have the same "epic" launch sequence over, and over, and over again. I'll spare them for historic missions like the return to the Moon and flights to Near-Earth-Objects, Mars, and...
...some other missions I have planned for the far-ish future.

Happy holidays!

Edited November 28, 2023 by Toaster355

[Toaster355]

February 7th, 2013

Ares 4 | Crewed Orion Flight Test

____________________

Many changes to the launcher and rocket have been made. I challenge you to find them all!

Commander Jebediah Kerman leads his peers across the Orion Crew Access Arm, and into the capsule.
They will not be headed to Freedom, as this is only an orbital test flight of them in Orion.

Once aboard and settled in their seats, the OCAA is retracted.

T-10:00:00 | "Sparkers" ignite.

T:00:00:06 | The 3 SSMEs powering the vehicle are lit.

T+00:00:00 | "Booster ignition and LIFTOFF of Ares 4! Godspeed Jeb, Val, Bill, and Bob!"

And the tower has been cleared!

Bill: "Roll program, Houston!"

Gene: "Roger roll, Orion."

"Max Q, Houston."

Bill: "Good Solid Rocket Booster separation."

Bill: "Launch Abort System is gone."

Jupiter continues pushing into orbit for a couple more minutes before the core stage is shut down.

Bill: "Good CCS shutdown. Releasing Orion now."

50 tons to Low Earth Orbit may seem a bit overkill for just servicing the ISS with Orion, right? Well, according to the DIRECT team, no. It is always better to have more performance than needed than less. This will give NASA the ability to launch high-volume cargo weighing over 20 tons along with crew, just like the Shuttle could. Orion can bring up very large quantities of food, life support, experiments, and other cargo without jeopardizing the safety of Kerbals for no extra cost.
And if all were to go wrong on a launch, if Orion isn't manifesting any payload, a 20-ton water tank could act as a ballistic shield, absorbing most of the energy of a catastrophe.

The crew circularize in Orion, in the shadow of their home planet.

Life may seem cramped inside a capsule like Orion, but the crew are happy as there are only 4 of them and they will not stay in space for long.

Jeb watches the surface zip by from his spacecraft.

After about a day spent in space, the crew prepare themselves and Orion for the return home.

"Flippin' over for Service Module jettison."

Bill: "Goodbye Service Module."
Bob: "Earth, here we come!"

Orion hits the first traces of air at an angle, so it can land with precision in the pacific ocean.

Bill: "Drogues are popped."

Bill: "And the main chutes are out."
Val: "What a ride. Love this thing already".

 

Thank you all for being patient. The first post has received its third major update too.
Happy holidays!

Edited August 13 by Toaster355
This was a bit rushed, and many typos were made. Please forgive me.

[TwoCalories]

On 11/29/2023 at 9:21 PM, Toaster355 said:

Many changes to the launcher and rocket have been made. I challenge you to find them all!

Oh really? CHALLENGE ACCEPTED. 

• Larger fairing around the Orion SM.
• Different flags on the new fairing.
• No more worm logos on the SRBs.
• New hold-down clamps on the launchpad.

And... I think that's it?

[Toaster355]

On 12/2/2023 at 5:47 PM, TwoCalories said:

Oh really? CHALLENGE ACCEPTED. 

• Larger fairing around the Orion SM.
• Different flags on the new fairing.
• No more worm logos on the SRBs.
• New hold-down clamps on the launchpad.

And... I think that's it?

Well done! 6.25 meter payload fairings, a new Jupiter flag on them, removed Worm logos, and SLS-style Tail Service Mast Umbilicals.
You did miss a few small things though, like how the LAS now has an Orion flag on it instead of a NASA Wormball, the launcher has a third arm for access to the fairing, a Lightning Mast was added to the roof, and the "Sparkers" now spray upwards into the engines (also inspired by SLS), and maybe some other things I forgot.

 

Also, here is a bit of a bonus for you all:

I really wanted to completely change the SLS-style launcher into this more realistic one. The DIRECT team wanted to reuse as many Shuttle assets as they could. Not only the vehicle itself. So they wanted to modify the Shuttle Launcher Base and FSS Tower.
However, I don't want to use this for a variety of reasons; almost none of the umbilicals from MLP were long enough to reach the rocket (even with the FSS as close to the launcher as possible, without clipping into anything), Orion had to be flipped 180° for the (very ugly and semi-unrealistic) crew arm to reach it, among other issues.

 

Next mission tomorrow or on Tuesday!

Edited December 4, 2023 by Toaster355

[TwoCalories]

Congrats on TOTM over in the Freedom thread, @Toaster355!

[Toaster355]

4 hours ago, TwoCalories said:

Congrats on TOTM over in the Freedom thread, @Toaster355!

Thank you so much dude!!

Edited December 5, 2023 by Toaster355

[Toaster355]

New mission on my Freedom thread!

Do you want me to put ISS flights over on that thread or keep them here? Or do you want both?
I want them on the Freedom thread because flights to the station feel like they belong there.

And I have another question; should I revamp all previous mission posts over on that thread? As in, make them shorter and change them up to modern standards?
For newcomers, I want it to be an enjoyable experience to read all the way from the beginning to the present without it dragging on and being too repetitive, which I feel is a big problem currently.

It's up to you all!

[TwoCalories]

On 12/6/2023 at 4:23 PM, Toaster355 said:

Do you want me to put ISS flights over on that thread or keep them here? Or do you want both?
I want them on the Freedom thread because flights to the station feel like they belong there.

And I have another question; should I revamp all previous mission posts over on that thread? As in, make them shorter and change them up to modern standards?
For newcomers, I want it to be an enjoyable experience to read all the way from the beginning to the present without it dragging on and being too repetitive, which I feel is a big problem currently.

I feel like the construction of Freedom was its own storyline, as the report only focused on it and the Space Shuttles. DIRECT is also its own storyline, as it focuses on the new program. In this report, Freedom is now one of the many elements of this new generation of vehicles and exploration. I consider Freedom to be like a prequel.

So, the TL;DR for that is that I think Orion/Freedom flights should be kept on the DIRECT thread.

And to answer your second question, I think you should do what you want!  If you aren't happy with how your previous mission posts are, you can always make edits. I've done it on my own report, and I'm much happier with the revamps of those chapters.

[Kerbalsaurus]

It's been a little while. Everything good?

[Toaster355]

21 hours ago, Kerbalsaurus said:

It's been a little while. Everything good?

Yep! Thanks for checking; everything's fine.
Finally finished with school for the winter! I can hopefully now follow up on my promise of "more posts more often." I'm sorry if you felt lied to when I said that; I meant to say that would happen once school was finished.

 

____________________

Ares 6

Today or tomorrow!

[Toaster355]

August 18th, 2013

Ares 6 | Freedom Crew

 

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On my sister's 5th birthday (IRL when this mission takes place, not cannon obviously), the 6th Jupiter-130 ever built thunders into the very early morning sky of the Floridan coast.

I am stupid and didn't switch from APAS to LIDS To save on a bit of money, an old APAS soft capture mechanism from the Shuttle era will be flown. It isn't unsafe in any way; just a bit older and heavier.

Orion does not manifest any payload, any ATV on this flight, so another 20-ton tank of water is flown. This is for extra safety on early flights with crew, so the new technology can be perfected as they continue to fly.

Circularization burn.

The Jupiter-130 CCS, as it falls to it's inevitable demise in the protective atmosphere of Earth below.

Rendezvous burns...

...Until Freedom is finally in view!

Luna watches the crew as they very slowly and carefully approach the massive orbital structure, with their soft capture ring already extended and ready.

Soft capture!

After a hard capture and a couple hours of equalizing pressure, the crew can board the station.

The snacks delivered by the last flight are transferred into the many pressurized modules.

Spoiler

Uhh...

...The ST-Z truss... is gone? I have genuinely no memory of removing it. How long has it been gone for?

I will re-add it before the next Freedom flight.

After just 2 months and 2 days docked, the crew prepare to return home aboard Orion 004, sent in June.

De-orbit burn.

Orion rides down the "neon tube," into the pacific ocean below.

The forward heatshield (and the docking mechanism, somehow???) pop off, revealing the drogue parachutes underneath.

 

____________________

Thank you all for reading!

I have a bit of a Christmas gift coming up...

Edited August 6 by Toaster355

[TwoCalories]

11 hours ago, Toaster355 said:

What mod adds those floodlights?

[Toaster355]

58 minutes ago, TwoCalories said:

What mod adds those floodlights?

They're stock! The stock Illuminator Mk2 tweakscaled as large as possible.

[EStreetRockets]

On 11/30/2023 at 12:21 AM, Toaster355 said:

This is really fantastic. I love what you're doing, keep it up!

[TwoCalories]

On 12/22/2023 at 9:30 PM, Toaster355 said:

The forward heatshield (and the docking mechanism, somehow???) pop off,

I use this mod and I've noticed this happening, too. I think it's a bug, and as far as I know, there's no fix, but fortunately, in my experience, it doesn't affect the mission. It makes screenshots like those a lot less satisfying, however.

[Toaster355]

15 hours ago, EStreetRockets said:

This is really fantastic. I love what you're doing, keep it up!

Thank you!!! And thank you again for such a fantastic mod!!!

5 hours ago, TwoCalories said:

I use this mod and I've noticed this happening, too. I think it's a bug, and as far as I know, there's no fix, but fortunately, in my experience, it doesn't affect the mission. It makes screenshots like those a lot less satisfying, however.

Strange, you're also experiencing the problem. I also don't actually mind it that much; I think it looks kinda cool with them both popping off?

 

____________________

Christmas special today!!!

All I'll add is... I'm going to be recreating my profile picture.