[AAR] Sagittarius Research and Refueling Station [WIP] (pic heavy)

[Sovek]

Greetings folks, Like to share with you whats been going on in my head. After getting the Kethane mod, I've decided to put a refueling station into orbit. It will be parked in a 300kmx300km orbit @ 0° inclination. It will contain at least 12 (yes 12) XL photovoltaic panels, 2x2.5m long fuel tanks (KW offerings), and 2 large Kethane tanks, along with a Kethane refinery, and there will be a minmus/mun lander to collect Kethane as needed. The Kethane tanks will be interchangeable so I can send the lander off while I refine.

This is the log of the project. This post will be edited as it goes.

So. A station, its not the easiest of projects, partly due to the large size payloads, and the fact that its constructed in orbit unless you intend to build an absolutely massive rocket... The design difficulties of the rockets has been significant to say the least. Add in the fact that I'm getting plenty of practice docking...

So on to the design issues, lets start with the core. For a start, it weighs a whopping 147t (15t X 9.81 m/s^2), on top of needing enough ÃŽâ€V to reach a 300kmx300km orbit, so the rocket was needless to say, large. This is the final design of the lifter I used to get it up there.

This sucker has 1 Griffon XX rated at 3.8mn. Attached radially are 2 boosters, each powered by a Maverick V rated at 1.3mn. total ÃŽâ€V for the first two stages is in the 3.5km/s area. The third stage is powered by a Rockomax Atlas engine (KSPX) rated at 650kn, total ÃŽâ€V of 2.6Km/s.

Lets look at her launch

Liftoff!!!

8km above KSC after jettisoning her liquid boosters

Picking up horizontal speed, 32Km and still has fuel left.... love that engine

Third stage engine ignition. Fairings around the core were discarded since we are at the out reaches of the atmosphere.

A close up of the third stage as its about to do it's final orbital insertion. Plenty of fuel left.

Seperation of the payload. Looking good

(note: slight design oversight, for some reason the internal gyros of the rocket couldn't move the thing, I wound up bumping the core as I used engine gimbals to get to retrograde for a deorbit)

Of course, we cant leave trash laying around in orbit, sooooo, re-entry time, there were much flames

Final pic of the core.

Further updates coming.

Edited April 23, 2013 by Sovek

[sodopro]

Belongs in the Spacecraft section.

[botse]

Belongs in the Spacecraft section.

No wean they being back the AAR part thats were this goes:)

[sodopro]

I have no idea what you're trying to say.

[architeuthis]

Of course, we cant leave trash laying around in orbit, sooooo, re-entry time, there were much flames

Kerbals are hilariously cavalier about deorbiting spent nuclear stages onto their homeworld.

[Sovek]

Kerbals are hilariously cavalier about deorbiting spent nuclear stages onto their homeworld.

The Atlas is not a nuclear engine

[Sovek]

More updates, YAY!. The power arrays are up , as are the first 4 kerbals

First up, the Leo rocket, it has a payload a little over 3.5t, two were built, designed to launch a single array with six XL photovoltaic panels each.

Here it is sitting on the pad, waiting for our launch window, saddly the window was at night for Leo-A. A little more on this rocket. She weighs in at 1067.3t total, and has 2 stages. The first stage is powered by a single Griffon G8D (little brother of the Griffon XX), and delivers 1.7mn of thrust for a T:W of 1.6. on the ground. The second stage is powered by a single LV-T45 engine, and provides a total ÃŽâ€V of nearly 6K. She is kept powered by a single RTG (though I could have used a battery and couple static SP instead) Docking one of these is actually rather difficult due to the length of of the array, and judging things can be difficult. Night light included

Anyways... enough rambling, now where were we.... oh yeah, LIFTOFF OF LEO-A

Passing 20km for 100km.

MECO and seperation of first stage at 44Km T+2:25

How about some lights

Burning for final orbital insertion

The PLANNED intercept, of 0.0km seperation (it didnt quite go that way :/)

Approaching the SRS

almost there...

Capture!

So long Sagittarius, it was nice to meet you.

[ruiluth]

This is pretty cool, i might try it soon myself...

[Wait- Was That Important?]

I'm just surprised that the second rocket you showed has only 3.5t payload capacity- similar rockets built in the 2.5m range of KW sizes give me, at the very least, 8-10t payloads to LKO. Did you test it with more than 3.5t or are you just guessing?

[Sovek]

Heh, the Leo rocket had way more ÃŽâ€V than required, as you can see I had almost a half tank left of fuel, and with the 3.5t of dead weight dropped... yeah. Overbuilt.

And since there was accident/me playing around, there will be a SRS 2.0, but that thread will be more written as if you are actually reading about a launch ect. I'm currently working it out in the crew required (rotation crew included, along with 3 sets of flight controlers)

Edited April 29, 2013 by Sovek