New Horizons : space station under construction

[Auriga]

Hi, my little mission report about my space station project was also lost in this forum crash. Luckily, I had a backup of most parts of it in my Evernote. But there seems to be no new mission report sub forum here? So I'd like to restore it here. I will add some new chapters soon. Hopefully you still like this report :

Hello everyone here in the forum, first of all I'd like to say thank you to squad for this great game. I had so much fun with this game, spent so many hours and had so many exciting missions. Thats the reason why I like to post a little mission report here about my current mission:

After successful missions to Mun, Minmus and Duna, the Administration of the Kerbal Space Program decided it is time to make the Space Program more efficient. It is planned to build a spaceship in the orbit of Kerbin, which is large enough to reach every planet in the solar system, carrying payload like a lander or probes and have enough fuel reserves for some science operations.

Therefore, as first step, a space station is needed as shipyard and an mission hub in Kerbin's orbit, so the New Horizons Projekt was born:

It will provide a dock to assemble a spaceship, a fuel bay for refueling after a mission, storage facilities to store payloads and it will have a overall crew capacity of 18 Kerbalnouts.

In the middle of the night the first part, the core section of the station, launched into the dark sky. It was on its way to an orbit 100 km above surface.

shortly after gravity turn...

...and finally in its orbit. The core section is still unmanned because it is not very comfortable at the moment. It is dark, cold, no electricity but this will change, in future missions it is planned to build up this station and to add all the other sections.

I also recorded a video with more details about the core sections and about my first attempt to add the first solar panel arm. Unfortunately there was a slight miscalculation in the fuel calculation for RCS fuel (the responsible engineer is already fired). The rendezvous maneuver worked pretty well but I run out of fuel before I was able to dock. Better luck next time.

But before you watch, a little warning: I'm from Germany and I have not so much routine in speaking english but I had my reasons to give it a try, especially for my Cities XL series. So, you will encounter some linguistic mistakes:0.0:, hopefully you like it anyway:wink:

Unfortunately the series of technical difficulties doesn't stops. During some routine docking tests, Kerbin engineers discovered a weak spot in the structural integrity of the Station Service Vehicle, caused by a design flaw. This issue brought the whole station into danger (so, the engineer who was responsible for the SSV is already fired as well ) and it has to be replaced with a new one. So the SSV MKII was planned and was sent up into orbit.

SSV MKII on the top of its carrier rocket shortly before getting into orbit...

… and moments before dock.

After that, the New Horizons Project continued at the point where it was interrupted by the technical difficulties: the redesigned solar panel rocket shortly after launch and on its way to New Horizon Core.

last staging before orbit...

final approach on New Horizons...

If you like this short mission report and like to know more about all the things that have happened during this mission please watch my new episode about this space station building project. (and this time I've successfully docked the solar panel)

After successfully docking the first solar panel arm at the station, it was also possible to dock the second packed solar panel array. So no new technical issues (and no additional fired engineer) and the New Horizon project is back on its schedule again.

The second array shortly before docking with the station.

But now the New Horizons Project gets to a tricky moment. It's time to assemble the solar panels in space. For that the ground crew at the Kerbal Space Center will remotely control the Station Service Vehicle, they will undock the SSV, dock it with on of the solar panel arms, undock them and than the SSV will haul the panel into its final position at the Station.

The first image shows the SSV right at the moment of undock with a solar panel arm, in the background you can see the finished solar panels.

and here is the whole finished solar panel array and the SSV on it way back to the top of the Station.

The work at New Horizons is still not done, crew quarters, fuel bay and the ship yard is still missing. But since today the station has power

and as always at the end of every chapter, a new episode about all the things that were happened in this chapter

Now, with solar power, the station is a habitable place. The space program administration decided it is time to send the first Kerbalnautess up in space for manning the station's command bridge.

Therefore a new shuttle craft was designed, the CTS_MK_I (Crew Transport System), here it is right after launch:

Four large and 8 small radial mounted liquid fuel engines are needed to get the shuttle into orbit. There it is powered by two atomic engines, witch extends it's range of operation.

The CTS at the moment of staging...

...after reaching the orbit (btw. this screen was my entry for the I dream of space contest)

...and finally docked at the Station construction site.

When the mission is done and the CTS is back in the atmosphere, a normal air breathing engine keeps it flying until it reaches the Kerbal Space Center for a gentle landing.

If you like to see more about the whole flight and the most exciting docking maneuver I ever had, check out this video:

After successful docking the CTS_MK_I Shuttlecraft with the station and transferring the new Crew (Jeb and Bill) to the Command bridge, it was time for Bob, the shuttle pilot, to accomplish the next mission objective.

The old engine stage, which brought the core section into an orbit, needs to be hauled away from the station and needs to be pushed into the atmosphere. So Bill docked up with the engine stage and started a breaking maneuver to bring the shuttle and the old stage on a trajectory to reenter the atmosphere.

At the edge of the atmosphere Bill released the stage, prepared himself for reentering and for the landing at the Kerbal Space Center.

Back in the atmosphere, a air breathing jet engine keeps the shuttle in the air. The shuttle on approach to the runway…

… and finally landed... next to it ….

And here is a video about the whole flight and landing, thx for watching.

After the successful shuttle test it was time to continue the construction of the New Horizons Station. The next step was to bring the crew quarters up to the station. Two launches were planed, to get 4 quarters to the station, so that the station finally will have a overall crew capacity of 18 Kerbalnautess.

The first carrier rocket launched in the evening....

but had to be destroyed, because of some technical fuel flow problems (the next fired engineer since a while)

But the second try, with a improved rocket, worked very well and it reached space...

and finally the station.

Also the second carrier rocket was able to get to the station and to dock with it.

Finally the remotely controlled SSV started its work and hauled the first quarter to its final docking node.

This time it took a bit longer, so here are two episodes about this. In the first one I've builded the rocket and in the second one I brought it to the station and had a really tough time to move the first quarter to its final place with my little helper craft.

...the final chapter and the last space station construction mission After the helper craft, the Station Service Vehicle, brought the last crew module into position...

...the whole upper part of the New Horizons Station was finished. Now it's time to add the lower part, the fuel bay and the shipyard to the station. To optimize the whole process, the administration of the Kerbal Space Program comes to the conclusion that it is more efficient to send the whole lower part, all at once, up in space to the station.

For this a complex rocket was needed and here it is on the lunch pad. The space station part it self is in the centre of this construction and the fuel bay is on top... not very aerodynamically But efficient, because the staging and fuel flow is organized as asparagus staging.

Finally the final station part launched into the sky, here you can see the last staging before orbit...

and finally in a orbit, on its way...

to the Station.

The whole docking process was really dramatic. A collision between station and the lower part, thank god it was a slight one, brought the whole station and the crew into danger. But both parts survived without any damage, also the crew was fine, terrified but fine XD

And with the second try it finally worked, now the Station is finished!

Top view:

view out of the window of the command bridge:

And as always at the end two videos about the last and final construction mission. There you can see how I've builded that rocket, send it to the Station and the dramatic moment of collision.

So finally I'd like to say thank you to everyone here for all the grate feedback (also to everyones feedback that got lost with the forum crash), to everyone who read my missonreport and to everyone who watched my videos. We will hopefully see us again on a mission to Jool

Edited June 11, 2013 by Auriga

[TheRabbit]

Nice job so far! I would've launched all the solar panels separately, would've been a mistake on my part.

[Auriga]

Thx @ TheRabbit

I've added a new chapter, chapter 6, to my first post. Apparently there is a maximum of 5 videos in one post, so I've started to replace older videos with links leading to the youtube page.

[The Jedi Master]

...

...

Why am I so bad at this game, people are making awesome space stations and I can't even rendezvous...

[TheSuperintendnt]

Young padawan do not worry, you will master it, it took me awhile to be able to do things, but I must say MechJeb 2.0 is great for teaching/learning how to do different maneuvers! Now grant it I use MechJeb 2.0 because I'm lazy not because I can't. (Maneuver nodes help BIG time, my first mun shot was before we had them, so it was more of a guess and check!)

But nice station you do a fine job explaining everything also your English is better than my German! Wish I could speak or at least understand German.(Now that I think about it you speak better English than some of the idiots in my English class.)

[Goldmas]

Is there going to be a download? I would love to download the station.

[Auriga]

Why am I so bad at this game, people are making awesome space stations and I can't even rendezvous...

I agree with TheSuperintendnt. Personally I don't like to use MechJeb anymore because I have a lot of fun while I fly my stuff manually But in my early ksp days I tried MechJeb because I had a lot of problems to get things into space. MechJeb taught me a lot about how to fly a rocket.

@Goldmas: Yes, I think could do this

[Greywind]

Very cool station, you did a great job designing and building it.

[Auriga]

Hi guys, I added the final chapter to the first post. Now the whole Station is finished A big thx to everyone here, for reading and watching my mission reports and for all the feedback.

Now I'm thinking about to release the Station as download but I'm not sure what will be the best way, there are two options: The easiest for me would be to release every craft file of every section of the station, including their launch vehicle, as some kind of "construction kit". The second option is to rebuild the whole space station in the VAB and release it as on craft file, but this would be a lot of work...

However, I hope you enjoyed my report and maybe we will see us again on a mission to Jool.

[Voli]

Hi guys, I added the final chapter to the first post. Now the whole Station is finished A big thx to everyone here, for reading and watching my mission reports and for all the feedback.

Now I'm thinking about to release the Station as download but I'm not sure what will be the best way, there are two options: The easiest for me would be to release every craft file of every section of the station, including their launch vehicle, as some kind of "construction kit".

This option is the easiest and hope you can share your .craft files More fun to put the entire thing together.

[Bison Steve]

I just would like to say great job! And thank you! I've been attempting to recreate New Horizons station in my own game, just from your pictures. It's been a fun challenge to figure out how you did it originally. I've had to change a number of things, probably due to my lack of experience . So far I've managed to get the core section and one of the solar arrays up and connected. Tonight I'll be getting the second one up and assembled. I've learned a lot about station design and assembly from this project and it has given me a lot of ideas for my own creations . Thanks again!