Long-term Laythe Mission (pic heavy) - ^_^ With Part 45 ^_^

[Major999]

I think you're gonna need bigger tugs for the new reentry damage feature.

[Scotius]

IF there will be reentry damage. Devs have yet to confirm if it will be added or not. Personally, i hope it will be toggleable in the difficulty menu.

[Deddly]

IF there will be reentry damage. Devs have yet to confirm if it will be added or not.

I’ve been also looking at implementing a new re-entry heat system to run alongside. This should all make for a much more interesting atmospheric experience!

Source: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/108783-Devnote-Tuesdays-The-Really-Hot-Edition

[Yellowburn10]

Does anyone else have a satisfactory feeling with the fact that the last part was posted at the beginning of the 100th page?

[Wabbit]

Does anyone else have a satisfactory feeling with the fact that the last part was posted at the beginning of the 100th page?

I thought I was the only one who noticed that kind of stuff xD

[Brotoro]

Long-term Laythe - Part 43

Carrying Comsats

Back when Beta 0.90 hit, the OKTO2 probe cores lost the ability to generate any torque at all...and my constellations of communications satellites (which don't actually do anything) around Laythe, Vall, Tylo, Bop, and Pol all lost their ability to orient in space...which makes them do even less. So, first item for today is to take care of getting some refurbishment and replacement comsat equipment headed off to Jool.

The comsats in Laythe orbit have docking ports, so they can be refurbished by adding on a reaction wheel part -- but all the other comsats lack docking ports, so they will eventually need to be replaced. There were only a couple months before the next Kerbin-to-Jool transfer window, so I rolled four d4 to see how many comsats the KSC crew could have ready, and got 9.

Below we see the launch of the comsat payload. Because this payload has roughly half the mass of the typical payloads I send out to Jool, it only required a two-booster version of the Reusable Rocket to get to orbit (despite also carrying a Rockomax X200-32 Fuel Tank that will provide fuel for the trip). You can imagine along with me, the fairing enclosing the payload prior to the nose cone being jettisoned.

We get a closer look at the payload in the next picture as it continues on to orbit. There is a carrier bus (which is also equipped as a comsat) with eight comsats attaced around it. The central spine of the bus ends in a stack of reaction wheels with docking ports which will be used to refurbish the Laythe comsats. Note: The action group that separated the nose cone and fired its sepratrons also deactivated the torque of those reaction wheels...because otherwise the stack waggled around in a rather obscene manner during maneuvers.

After depositing the payload into a roughly 100 km orbit, the Reusable Rocket sustainer separated and returned to KSC for re-use.

To push the payload to Jool, a Tug that had previously been to Jool and back (at least once) was chosen. This Tug was residing in Kerbin orbit attached to the Big Gas Tank, and it was about four-fifths full of fuel that had been taken from the Big Gas Tank and from other ships that had docked there to offload excess fuel. In fact, it had MORE fuel than would be needed, so some was put back into the Big Gas Tank (leaving the Tug's central tank mostly empty) before the Tug was undocked and headed off to rendezvous with the comsat payload.

When the Nuclear Tug rendezvoused with the comsat payload, it first docked its rear end to the comsat payload. Then the Tug separated the X200-32 Fuel Tank from the payload, moved off a little way, flipped 180 degrees, and then re-docked to the comsats using its front docking port.

The fuel from the X200-32 Tank was transferred to the Tug's main tank (leaving the X200-32 almost empty). Then the ship was pointed prograde, and an action group was activated that undocked the X200-32 Tank and fired four canted sepratrons mounted on the tank. The sepratrons gave the X200-32 Tank a big enough kick to deorbit it, in accordance with my No Littering policy.

Because of the low mass of the comsat payload (11.6 tons), the Nuclear Tug would have plenty of fuel to push the payload to Jool even without an additional rear tank attached. The trajectory plotted for Jool transfer is shown below. Jool will be near its node with Kerbin's orbital plane when the ship arrives, so an encounter is showing up even before any plane change maneuver is figured in. (We don't see the trajectory of the returning Grey Havens Express in this plot because that's being handled in a separate copy of the save file.)

The 1,952 m/s burn would take only 12 minutes (as opposed to the nearly 20-minute burn I typically deal with when sending heavier payloads to Jool), so this burn was performed in one step (instead of my usual two). This resulted in the periapsis dropping down below 85 km during the burn, but that was no problem.

The Tug was still firing when the ship passed out of Kerbin's shadow for the back-lit picture below.

The Tug used about 66% of the fuel in its main tank for the Jool transfer burn. The side tanks on the nuclear nacelles were still full, as was the X200-8 Fuel Tank at the base of the payload (the fuel flow through the docking ports had been disabled during the burn).

Whenever I get a transfer trajectory that leads to an encounter (as happened here because Jool was going to be near the node), I always seem to waste lots of time messing with that maneuver, trying to get an acceptable final equatorial orbit...and I'm never happy with the result. It's so much easier to just do the separate plane shift maneuver. Below, we see the plane shift maneuver that I set up (after the ship left Kerbin's SOI) for when the ship approaches Jool -- the node was located just three days before encountering Jool's SOI. Because the plane shift takes place far from Kerbol, it will only require 58.6 m/s of delta-V.

That plane-shift maneuver node also includes the fine-targeting for the Laythe encounter. Below we see the maneuver results, focused on Laythe, coming in for a nearly perfectly tangential encounter. This is important for minimizing the velocity of the encounter and minimizing the heating during aerocapture (which might be an issue by the time this payload reaches Laythe, depending on when KSP 1.0 is released). This targeting is done using Precise Node to tweak the radial and prograde components of the burn to get the desired tangential encounter.

That plane-shift burn, of course, is not going to happen for another 295 days, but the maneuver node is stored with the ship so it will be ready when the time comes (and I set an alarm in Kerbal Alarm Clock to remind me). Did I ever mention how happy I was when Squad made the change that allowed future maneuver nodes to be stored with the ship? Because it's very handy.

Heroic Homecoming

I'm going to skip ahead here and take care of the Old Crew's return to Kerbin. There are a couple other Kerbin-to-Jool transfer windows that will occur during this phase, and I'll go back to them as needed in my timey-whimey ways if I decide there is anything else I want to send out to the New Crew on Laythe during that time (but they already have most everything I could think of to send them).

When we left our Old Crew, heading home in the Grey Havens Express, the plane-shift maneuver prior to Kerbin encounter (which will happen very close to Kerbin), was already set up and stored (see the plot below). Because it happens way down near Kerbin, the plane shift will require over 500 m/s of delta-V...but the Old Crew was sent home with plenty of extra fuel, just in case, so this won't be a problem.

Nelemy: "Whoa, Dude! What is this strange sensation? My snack bar wants to fall toward the deck. It's been so long since I've felt anything like this."

Kurt: "If you think this acceleration is something, you're going to be in for a big shock when we land on Kerbin. Have you been keeping up on your exercise routine?"

Nelemy: "Dude...there are DAYS left before we reach Kerbin...plenty of time for exercise later."

Kurt: "I've got the Kerbin aerocapture maneuver plotted. The fine-targeting burn will take 192 m/s of delta-V. The aerocapture itself will put us through 2.6 gees...that won't be fun after 270 days in zero-G."

Nelemy: "Ah, it'll be nothing. Aldner and I have been in zero-G even longer than you because we were waiting in Pol orbit while you guys explored the surface."

Kurt: "Well, Pol hasn't got much gravity either."

The fine-targeting burn is seen below. As pointed out before, even with eight nukes pushing, the big beastie that is Grey Havens Express doesn't accelerate very fast.

Hellou: "Look at Kerbin! The city lights on the night side are beautiful. I can't wait to get home."

Aldner: "Yeah. I guess it's been so long since I've been in Kerbin orbit...but I don't really recall all those lights. Maybe everybody is using a lot more electricity nowadays. OK...get strapped into your acceleration couch."

With all those Tugs in the way, there was hardly any noticeable reentry flames on the habitat modules.

Nelemy: "Arrrrgggggghhhh. Dude...Turn off the acceleration!"

The aerocapture pass left the Grey Havens Express in an elliptical orbit with an apoapsis of 337,000 km. A small burn of 6.1 m/s aligned the orbit with the equator, then another burn of 7.6 m/s raised the periapsis (but still left it in the upper atmosphere) for an aerobraking pass to lower the orbit.

After a couple more small burns to slowly raise the periapsis and make some even weaker aerobraking passes, a final 50 m/s prograde burn circularized the Grey Havens Express into an approximately 103 km circular orbit. The ship was home safe.

All of the big central tanks of the Nuclear Tugs were empty, but the picture below shows that there was still a goodly amount of fuel in the side tanks of the nuclear nacelles. There is also propellant in some of the FL-T400 tanks that surround the habitat modules (which acted as cosmic radiation shielding during the return trip).

Ours heros from Jool would be picked up and returned to Kerbin by none other than Jebediah and Bill Kerman, using an 8-kerbal Crew Carrier 6d SSTO rocket. Below, the Crew Carrier takes off on its six RAPIER engines in air-breathing mode.

I always like to fly the Crew Carriers manually into space to see how much delta-V I have leftover for orbital maneuvers. The flight profile starts vertical, then at 5K the ship is tilted 20 degrees downrange to start picking up horizontal velocity. Above 15K, the ship is pitched over more to get the horizontal velocity up over 700 m/s before the RAPIERs need to be switched over to closed-cycle mode. The engines were cut at 44K when the apoapsis hit 115 km. I'm very interested to see if this ship will work well (or at all) under the new aerodynamics coming in version 1.0.

The Crew Carrier made it into orbit with 983 m/s of delta-V remaining for orbital maneuvers. The boost wasn't straight East, so an 11 m/s burn was needed to match orbital planes with the equatorial orbit of the Grey Havens Express.

Jebediah: "And...docked! Are you guys ready to head back to KSC?"

Thompbles: "It's going to take a while to get all these samples and data packs moved over to the Crew Carrier."

Bill: "Remember, we're only bringing half of the samples down on this trip. No use risking everything in one ship that Jeb is driving. We'll send another ship up later to bring back the rest."

Once Thompbles, Kurt, Aldner, Nelemy, Hellou, and Emilynn (and half their samples) got transferred over to the SSTO, the Crew Carrier separated from the Grey Havens Express, and Jeb (or MechJeb, as the case may be) targeted the landing for KSC and set the ship down for a routine landing north of the launch pad.

The crew disembarked and were finally safely back on Kerba firma."

Bill: "Welcome home to Kerbin, folks! It's nice to have you back after seven years."

Kurt: "Seven years and 78 days. But who's counting?"

Thompbles: "That's what happens when you tack on a couple extra years because of Kerbol mega-flares and extended exploration."

Hellou: "Emilynn and I have only been gone for five years...but our mission was supposed to be only half that long."

Bill: "But we really appreciate all the extra work you did, especially in exploring Tylo, Bop, and Pol. It saved us from having to send out extra crews to get that done."

Nelemy: "Whoa, Dudes! Look at the KSC! New buildings everywhere."

Kurt: "Yeah...I like what you've done with the place."

Jebediah: "Yup, we've come a long way since the old Barn."

Nelemy: "Barn?"

Bill: "Back before your time."

Nelemy: (opens the faceplate of his helmet) "What's that weird smell?"

Hellou: "That's fresh air, Nelemy."

Aldner: "Air that doesn't smell like you, Little Buddy."

Nelemy: "Dude."

Just for reference, below is a picture of what the KSC looked like when Thompbles, Kurt, Aldner, and Nelemy left for their Laythe mission. You can see why they are impressed.

Jebediah: "Uh oh...here come the reporters."

Bill: "Get lined up for some photos. And then we'll have the medical checks, debriefings, press conferences, meetings with the President, ticker tape parades, and all that."

Hellou: "Not before I get a chance for a bath, I hope. I haven't had a proper bath in years."

Nelemy: "My feet hurt. When do we get to sit down?"

One Month Later...

After all the weeks of parades and parties and press conferences, the lives of our heros quickly reverted back to the normalcy of a kerbalnaut's time on Kerbin. Below, we see Kurt happening to run into Adlner on his way from the Astronaut Complex over to the VAB.

Aldner: "Yo, Kurt. I see they have you suited up...you don't have a mission, do you?"

Kurt: "Nah. They are doing vacuum pressure checks on the re-modeled Mk1 Inline Cockpit, and I'm the guinea pig."

Aldner: "I'm glad they're reworking the Inline Cockpit. The visibility from the old version was lousy -- it seemed like I could hardly see anything out of it."

Kurt: "True. What are you suited up for?"

Aldner: "They had me doing 'reach around' tests in the new Mk3 Cockpit mockup, just to be sure all the controls are where a suited pilot can reach them well. I've been doing a lot of boring stuff like that since we got back. The life of an astronaut on the ground is not nearly as exciting as being on a mission."

Kurt: "Well, you were never stranded for over three years around Moho like I was...not all missions are exciting. Besides...haven't you been entertaining yourself with that bevy of beauties that you named planetary features after during our mission?"

Aldner: "Sadly, no. They've all moved on."

Kurt: "What? Joysina from the Satellite Pub?"

Aldner: "She finished her Ph.D. in Astrophysics, and now she's teaching at West Kafrica University. And they closed the Satellite Pub, anyway."

Kurt: "Jenfir from the Launch Pad Tavern?"

Aldner: "She now works as a distributor for Blastoff Beer Company up north in Koor City."

Kurt: "Klaudiya from the Booster Bay Bar?"

Aldner: "She's now managing the joint...which is now the Booster Bay Family Restaurant...and she says she's not interested in fly-boys anymore."

Kurt: "Ah. How about Itsii from the Refueling Station Bar & Grill?"

Aldner: "She married mission controller Gene Kerman, and now they have three kids."

Kurt: "Wow. I guess a lot can happen in seven years."

Aldner: "You know, what really hacks me off are all these changes around the KSC. All these eggheads and their big R&D center...which were hardly any help at all during our mission. And the young guys they have nowadays as astronaut recruits, shooting pool all day in the Astronaut Center. A couple of those punks were actually making fun of my Ban-Lon shirts! Ban-Lon is what an astronaut is supposed to wear."

Kurt: "Yeah. They are all into that polyester crap."

Aldner: "I tell ya...I need another mission so I can get out of this place."

Thompbles: "Well, well! If it isn't the two guys I've been looking for!"

Kurt: "Oh...Hi, Thompbles."

Aldner: "Hey there, Thompbles. Nice polyester shirt."

Thompbles: "Thanks. I don't suppose you guys would be interested in a new mission, would you?"

Kurt: "New mission? Where are we going?"

Aldner: "Yes, I'm interested. And you better not be joking, or I'll make you eat that shirt."

Thompbles: "No joke. I was talking to Deke Kerman in the Astronaut Office, and they need astronauts for a long-term Duna mission. He asked me to put together a crew."

Kurt: "I haven't heard anything about this."

Aldner: "When do we go?"

Thompbles: "It's a big project that Elon Kerman of Kerbodyne has been working on in secret. They've been designing and building the hardware, and they sold the idea to the Big Brass. We have one year to do the necessary training and get the ships boosted before the next Duna transfer window."

Kurt: "Another big Kerbodyne project? I'll bet the Rockomax Mafia aren't too happy about this."

Thompbles: "Rockomax will be doing some subcontracting. And they appeased them some by letting them choose one of the crew."

Kurt: "Ah...so Nelemy is coming?"

Thompbles: "Yes."

Aldner: "Is there any airplane flying to be done on this mission? I hear that the air is pretty thin on Duna."

Thompbles: "Yes...Elon says they have designed a plane they think will be useful to us on Duna. But mostly we'll be hopping and roving around."

Aldner: "OK. I'm in."

Kurt: "Me, too. No use sticking around here when some far lands are calling."

Thompbles: "Great. We're having a briefing tomorrow at eight hundred in the Administration building. Be there."

...Which is why it took me a while to get around to posting this... I've been designing and testing ships for Developing Duna. See you there!

Edited March 11, 2015 by Brotoro

[macdjord]

Wooo! New mission!

[DMSP]

Yes! I just love this series! Could all of the old cre go to Duna? I think if they did a mission together that would be cool.

I have a hunch that this is one way to Duna...

[Redhaze]

Let me start off by saying I consider you an inspiration, Brotoro. Whenever I'm in a KSP rut you post a new chapter, and I get new ideas and motivation for my own missions, even though I have only ever done a few interplanetary missions in all the years I've played. I also love the way you manage to give each kerbal a personality of its' (your) own, yet at the same time stay true to the feel of established kerbal lore.

So here, have some rep.

Wooo! New mission!

Woooh! Indeed! While I kinda feel sorry for the new Laythe crew, it's the old guys and gals i'm more interested in. It's fun watching their personalities develop, the interactions they have and the whole dynamic they bring. That, and well, How much more exciting new science can be done on Laythe?

[zekes]

I wish i had the time and energy to put into such an awesome project like this.

[Major999]

Long Term Duna? How're you gonna alliterate that?

(That was awesome, by the way)

Edited February 15, 2015 by Major999

[Snarfster]

Loving it. Great job!

[Wabbit]

D: Agh, Brotoro! I was gonna do a Duna base to make my series not seem like a copy of LTL. I mean, don't get me wrong, I am super hyped about Developing Duna... Just that timing tho. I am also looking forward to the New Crew stuff. I have my doubts about them, but that os just what happens. Kind of like whenever there's a new Doctor.

*David Tennant starts regenerating* Me: "Noooooo!"

*Matt Smith's first episode* "This guy will never be the same."

*After watching Matt Smith for a while* "This guy is so amazing!"

Can't wait to see how things work out.

And also, that photoshop tho!

Edited February 15, 2015 by Wabbit

[Yukon0009]

Yaaay! Part 43!

And Yaaay! Long-term Duna!

[RocketPilot573]

Long Term Duna? Awesome!

[Scotius]

New Long Term Mission?

[AppleDavidJeans]

Yeeeeeeeeeey Duna! Let me take a wild stab at this Duna plane. Is it ion-powered?

EDIT: Brotoro, you should try this for your ships: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/109632-Launch-tower-with-elevator-system

Edited February 15, 2015 by AppleDavidJeans

[The Error]

If the DunaPlane is an ion-powered VTOL, it will be amazing.

If it's a Mainsail-powered VTOL, Aldner will cry tears of pure joy.

[Solarapple]

I get so jealous looking at this because I wouldn't have the time or patience for this and even if I did I can't buy KSP so I'm stuck with the demo. This has come a long way. What started as a simple long-term laythe mission is now an interplanetary tour of the kerbol system.

[Enture]

Yay, they made it home! The Space Center has indeed come a long way since their departure... Although, I'm not going to lie, that part about how all Aldner's girls had moved on in life almost brought bittersweet tears into my eyes. This is a level of emotional complexity that nobody was in right to expect from what started as a little Laythe side-project, but you managed to get there anyway, well done!

Also... DUNA HERE WE COME, WOOHOOOOOO!

[Bananapple]

This is insane. I remember reading this thread a year ago and marveling at how awesome the idea is. To think you've been doing this for almost 2 years is insane. You're an inspiration to all of us.

[macdjord]

Brotoro, I've started a thread about reminiscing about foibles and accomplishments in KSP versions past, and I thought (hoped) you might want to chime in - I know at least a couple of the issues I mentioned in my OP are things you've experienced not just 'in the past' but in this very save-file (you highlighted the vanishing of the launch tower yourself with those 'before and after' shots, and I remember the iteration of the Nuclear Tug that had a dozen OCTO2 probes mounted on the top to provide torque because SAS unit torque was only available to the SAS system).

[Wallygator]

Sir,

Your mission posts were the "straw that broke the camels back" for me and inspired me to submit and purchase KSP without even trying the demo.

What else can I say? Well done you. Very well done.

[Brotoro]

Yes! I just love this series! Could all of the old crew go to Duna?...

The initial Duna crew will need 8 kerbals...so this is likely.

Let me start off by saying I consider you an inspiration, Brotoro...

So here, have some rep.

I appreciate the Reputation...thank you, sir! And I'm happy that I inspire others.

I wish i had the time and energy to put into such an awesome project like this.

What takes the most time is writing it all up. If *I* had more free time, I could crank these out faster.

Long Term Duna? How're you gonna alliterate that?...

Developing Duna. Getting the bases, exploration vehicles, reusable transportation system, and hopefully the equipment for exploiting local resources into place (but, then, that was the original plan back at the start of Long-term Laythe...and they might finally get resource exploitation, too).

...I am also looking forward to the New Crew stuff...

My problem with the New Crew is that I've done just about all I could think of to do on Laythe...but new things may occur to me. And I hope to send them some equipment for exploiting Jool system indigenous resources before they get rotated back to Kerbin.

...And also, that photoshop tho!

Sometimes ya just gotta 'shop.

...Let me take a wild stab at this Duna plane. Is it ion-powered?...

Yes, it does indeed involve the high-speed ejection of ions.

If the DunaPlane is an ion-powered VTOL, it will be amazing.

There will be some enhanced verticality to its flight profile...perhaps not amazing.

...Although, I'm not going to lie, that part about how all Aldner's girls had moved on in life almost brought bittersweet tears into my eyes..

I'm sure there were plenty of new fishies in the sea that wanted to interact with a Big Hero astronaut.

...Your mission posts were the "straw that broke the camels back" for me and inspired me to submit and purchase KSP without even trying the demo...

Excellent. If only we could get commissions from Squad for convincing people to buy their game.

To All: Thanks for the feedback and rep. I appreciate it.

Edited February 16, 2015 by Brotoro

[2001kraft]

Awesome exciting series, I will keep subscribed just in case

Can't wait for Duna

Edited February 16, 2015 by 2001kraft
derp