UKS MASEC Mission Logs [Picture Heavy] | UPDATE: Back in business, again!

[FishInferno]

AWESOME:)!! You are good at both doing the missions and writing about them!

[Cashen]

Chapter 6: Brave New World

Project Osiris: Big Plans Detailed

The big-picture plans for Project Osiris, the establishment of a permanent base of operations in the Jool system, have been set, given the data returned from the previous probe missions. The large quantity of accessable kethane discovered on Laythe has de-emphasized the need for orbital stations at either Bop or Pol. The first and most important decision is that the exploration of the Jool system will be headquartered from a single orbital station at Laythe. The fact that MASEC wants to get started as soon as possible, combined with the fact that not all of the desired technology is available yet, and only so many vehicles can be sent to Jool at one transfer window, mean that operations at Jool will be built up in phases. The first phase will take with it mostly existing technology, and operations will be expanded later when newer technologies and techniques become available. At the moment, the first two phases are more or less planned out, and should take place over the next two transfer windows to Jool if possible. There will be also be a series of Osiris Development Missions, or ODMs, to develop the technology and techniques used at Laythe and elsewhere.

Project Osiris, Phase 1

UKS Laythe Station: An orbital space station, similar in design to but slightly larger than Kerbin Station, to be placed in a circular orbit at Laythe's equator. It will contain enough habitable space for between 12 and 16 Kerbals, and will include a kethane refining and fuel storage module, but probably not kethane storage. All operations in the Jool system will be based from here. The decision to use one large orbital station is designed to keep the teams in close contact with each other at all times, rather than spread out over two or more orbital bases.

The Aten IEV: Just returned from Duna, this vehicle is currently docked to UKS Kerbin Station, but will be returned to service for the mission to Jool. Once there it will be the primary means of getting about the Jool system, including pushing around the various landers that will be developed.

Flying Fox SSTO Spaceplane: Formerly known as the Horus SSTO Spaceplane, Flying Fox is being transferred to Project Osiris. The discovery that Laythe's atmosphere will support jet engines means that this SSTO will hopefully become the primary means of exploring Laythe's various islands. There will likely be two of them taken during Phase 1, for redundancy. While Flying Fox has been throughly flight tested in the Kerbin system, no attention has been paid yet to how it handles as a rover on the surface, so at least one ODM will be dedicated to trying this out on Kerbin.

An Anubis-based Lander: The performance of the Flying Fox in the Laythe atmosphere is still unknown. Rocket landing and ascent is, however, well understood, even in atmospheres, such as Project Anubis' landing on Duna. This vehicle will be similar to the Anubis lander and will carry a Fennec rover underneath. It will however be designed to be reuseable, and therefore a single stage, capable of landing on Laythe and returning to orbit. This vehicle does not yet exist and the first ODMs will be to design and test it, but this should progress quickly as it's largely based on existing technology. While the long-term plan is to get down to, and up from Laythe using SSTO aircraft only (because they are easy to precision land), a reliable rocket-based vehicle is desired in case an aircraft breaks down and a crew requires rescue.

NAMLARV/Fennec: The tried and proven Mun lander/rover combination. Calculations have determined that NAMLARV/Fennec is capable of landing on Vall without modifications. Fennec should also handle fairly well on Bop, which is similar to Minmus in terms of gravity. It may not handle well on Pol, however, and while NAMLARV is overpowered for both Bop and Pol, this is seen as acceptable over the alternative of designing a whole new lander for those moons. NAMLARV will be important in finding landing sites for kethane production, since nobody's seen the surface of Bop or Pol up close yet.

An Amphion-based Kethane Extraction and Recovery Vehicle, and a dedicated Heavy Nuclear Tug: An upgrade to the existing Amphion in service at Minmus. That vehicle only has to shuttle from Minmus Station to the surface and back. In this case, the base will be at Laythe, so the new Amphion will be partnered with an unmanned heavy tug, based on the existing Hercules MkII, which will ferry it to Bop or Pol, and remain in orbit while Amphion goes to the surface. Once Amphion and its load of Kethane return, it will then push it back to Laythe. Since Phase 1 does not involve the use of Laythe's kethane (or any permanent structures on Laythe yet), this will be the primary source of fuel until Phase 2. The new Amphion will be more aggressively designed with a higher capacity than the current one, using Bop as the design constraint. This will enable both Bop and Pol to be used for Kethane, instead of having to choose one.

Planned for Phase 2

Laythe Surface Base: This will be a technological challenge. MASEC will have to design and build a surface base capable of supporting 6-8 Kerbals on the surface of Laythe, and design a way to deliver it to a specific point (to be determined later) on Laythe's surface. Once in place, this will serve as a base of operations for Laythe exploration, rather than relying on expeditions dropped from orbit. While orbital stations are often modular in design, the surface base will probably be one large piece assembled on Kerbin and launched at once. The base will be on the Jool facing side of Laythe, and preferably on or close to the equator. Proximity to kethane will be considered, but isn't critical. The development for this will include dropping a similar base from Kerbin orbit onto a remote location, probably on the south polar ice cap, and train Kerbals in living in a hostile environment for long periods.

More Fennecs: At least a pair of dedicated Fennec rovers will be dropped onto Laythe to support the surface base. Idealy the surface base will be on one of the larger islands, and this will allow exploration near the base location without using the Flying Fox. Plus they're handy to have around.

Laythe Kethane Wells: Unmanned, solar powered kethane drilling wells on one or more of the accessible kethane reservoirs. They'll contain drills and converters, with minimal tankage. Preferably located in flat areas where aircraft can easily land. These need to be reasonably precisely landed, and will all be away from the equator, so delivery methods are still being considered. This will permit surface operations on Laythe to be self sustaining and independent from space operations.

Horus Space Shuttle: Once Flying Fox verifies that flight in Laythe's atmosphere is fairly straightforward, the window will be open to deploy the Shuttle there. The Shuttle will serve two functions, idealy. One will be crew rotations between the surface base and the orbital station, replacing rocket based transportation. The other will be transporting fuel from the remote kethane wells to the base, acting as a refueling vehicle/fuel storage for the Flying Foxes.

NAMLARV Heavy: A much bigger, more powerful NAMLARV lander (with Fennec, of course) capable of landing and returning from the surface of Tylo. Analysis of the size of Tylo and its gravity indicate that a minimum of 6.5km/s of delta-v plus significant thrust would be required to do this with a reusable vehicle. Such a vehicle could in theory get to orbit from Kerbin in all one stage, something that's never been done with rocket based vehicles to date.

Phase 2 is still subject to change.

Other MASEC Business

Here's a look at what else MASEC has its eyes on for the future.

More RAMSES: The next interplanetary transfer window is to Dres, and there will be a RAMSES probe sent there. Not long after that, another window to Eve will open, and a pair of RAMSES probes will be sent that way as well, one to retire the IKSS in orbit around Eve, and the other to orbit Gilly after the failure of IKSS Gilly to get into orbit.

Project Anubis: This project isn't over. It will remain in existence at a low level. There are long term plans for a permanent outpost at Duna, which fall under the jurisdiction of this project. Current ideas include a "base on wheels" to avoid being tied to a specific location, coupled with an orbital base and a rocket-based crew transfer vehicle. This will also include kethane extraction from Ike, but that will require a redesigned Amphion KERV since Ike is a large moon. Mobile base testing may occur on Mun, but this remains to be seen.

Exploration of Moho: After the discovery of the hole in Moho's north pole, interest has been expressed in sending probes there. Manned exploration is also possible, probably in a mission intended to return, since there is not yet any desire to establish a permanent outpost at Moho due to high delta-V requirements.

Exploration of Eve: There's a rover on the surface of Eve. It's still active, though we've not heard from it here in a while. Eve is a difficult place to explore owing to the thick atmosphere and high gravity, and this has thus far discouraged any plans for manned exploration there. A manned landing on Gilly would be easy, but at present isn't interesting enough to warrant serious attention.

Stay tuned.

Edited July 13, 2014 by Cashen

[macdjord]

A couple other things you might want to consider:

• Some sort of boat or seaplane for Laythe, both for oceanic research and as a rescue option in case a misplaced rocket landing landing or an aircraft accident lands a kerbal in the drink
  
• Rather than make a monster 6.5km/s reusable Tylo lander, build one with half that delta-v and give it a small Kethane converter and drill. It restricts your landing options somewhat, but as long as you have a rover, that should be okay.
  

[Cashen]

A couple other things you might want to consider:

• Some sort of boat or seaplane for Laythe, both for oceanic research and as a rescue option in case a misplaced rocket landing landing or an aircraft accident lands a kerbal in the drink
  
• Rather than make a monster 6.5km/s reusable Tylo lander, build one with half that delta-v and give it a small Kethane converter and drill. It restricts your landing options somewhat, but as long as you have a rover, that should be okay.
  

A VTOL/Seaplane for Laythe is something I've been kicking around for a while. That might come later. I don't want to send all my good ideas at once. As for Tylo, I'd thought about doing the kethane in-situ thing, and I might, but it takes part of the challenge of Tylo away, for me. Plus secretly I already have a lander designed that can probably do the job.

[macdjord]

A VTOL/Seaplane for Laythe is something I've been kicking around for a while. That might come later. I don't want to send all my good ideas at once. As for Tylo, I'd thought about doing the kethane in-situ thing, and I might, but it takes part of the challenge of Tylo away, for me. Plus secretly I already have a lander designed that can probably do the job.

This is a laythe VTOL plane I designed based off of Brotoro's BirdDog aircraft. Instruction are here. Fully stock, except possibly for a MechJeb unit on it - I forget if I removed that before saving. It's a version or so old, so it might require a bit of updating.

[Cashen]

Osiris Development Mission 1: Laythe Lander Unmanned Test

The first and most important piece of equipment that hasn't been developed yet for Project Osiris is a rocket-based Laythe lander. This should be a fairly easy task - it's going to be designed similar to the Anubis lander, though more efficient in design. It'll be shorter since it doesn't have multiple stages, and will be lighter since it doesn't have additional engines or decouplers. It will however carry more fuel to give it the delta-V needed to escape Laythe's higher gravity and thicker atmosphere.

Mission Outline & Objectives

• First flight of the Osiris Laythe Crew Transport and Rescue Vehicle (LCTRV)
  
• Unmanned test flight
  
• Launch into low Kerbin orbit and dock to UKS Kerbin Station to take on a full load of fuel.
  
• De-orbit and land near KSC, test parachute landing ability.
  

While designed to ascend from Laythe, the LCTRV doesn't have the power to get off Kerbin by itself, so it's mounted on a large solid rocket booster which will throw it high enough into the air that the lander can do the rest. Also notice, unlike Anubis, Osirus has Fennec attached to it from the start. It also uses a winch system rather than a docking port, since Fennec is meant to be taken back into space.

Launch is in the morning and during heavy cloud cover. The ride on the booster is mostly vertical, and here the booster falls back as the lander takes over after pitch-over. It uses four of the NovaPunch Aerospike engines, the same engines Anubis used as descent engines, as they provide a good balance between vacuum and atmospheric efficiency.

Up into orbit. Osiris depletes most of its fuel getting to orbit, but here's a good closeup view of it. It has four outboard engine pylons. The Anubis lander had these, but they were purely structural in nature, whereas Osiris uses them as outboard fuel tanks to augment the main core tank. It has four drogue chutes mounted on the pylons, plus three radial main chutes on the core. It has a crew capacity of five Kerbals, but will typically only carry two (the number Fennec can carry) with the extra seats kept empty for possible rescue mission needs.

Approaching Kerbin Station on the second orbit. It'll dock at the fuel station below the solar panels and refill its propellent tanks. This fuel in theory won't be used in this mission, but since Osiris must land with the fuel it needs to return, it needs to land heavy, which is the goal of this test.

The other goal of this mission is a precision landing near KSC, so a careful de-orbit is planned on the opposite side of Kerbin, using RCS as velocity trim. Osiris differs from Anubis in that it also has RCS, since it must actively dock with a passive station: Anubis only had to rendezvous and the Aten IEV performed the docking.

Re-entry on the approach to KSC. The de-orbit may have been to the proper velocity but Kerbin's rotation always makes these calculations difficult, and they'll come up short. This only highlights how difficult but important precision landings will be, considering how little margin for error there will be on Laythe.

Osiris is about 41km west of KSC. Not the most accurate landing, but still within easy driving distance for Fennec (if this mission were manned). Still, 40km could mean splashing down in water on Laythe. In reality, were that to happen, the procedure would be to abort the landing and come back up to orbit.

Osiris comes through the clouds just east of the mountains, the foothills of which climb up through the cloud layer. By now it's nearly sunset here.

This is where things start to go wrong. Anubis relied on two huge main parachutes to descend, but Osiris' original design is three smaller radial ones, plus four drogues. It turns out that's not enough, and the descent only slows to about 20 m/s, forcing the engines to fire to try to save the landing. But this starts to go wrong, as Osirus starts to move sideways (as can be seen with the angle of the parachutes), and comes down too hard and with too much sideways velocity. It crashes.

The aftermath. Osiris landed hard and moving sideways and was not totally vertical. The engines were still firing. One of the outboard pylons broke away and with no ability to shut that engine off after it broke free, that booster took off, and crashed and exploded some distance away. One of the other engines, visible laying on the ground nearby, broke loose. The asymmetric thrust tipped the whole vehicle over (at this point the engines were turned off). One of the other pylons then broke loose and rolled off to the side. Surprisingly, Fennec is undamaged and the crew compartment is fine. The crash would have been survivable for any crew on board but Osiris itself is a writeoff.

The mission is a failure, but the solution is simple. More parachutes. Anubis only needed two drogue chutes, so there's no reason Osiris needs four - two of them will be replaced with main chutes. More radial chutes will be added as well. Osiris is supposed to land unpowered to save fuel, using Laythe's thicker atmosphere and parachutes to land with. The next flight of Osiris is scheduled to be a manned landing test, and MASEC is confident it will be ready and the parachute issue will be resolved by then. This is why we test these things beforehand!

Edited July 13, 2014 by Cashen

[FishInferno]

Yayayay!!!!!!!

[Cashen]

Osiris Development Mission 2: Flying Fox Rover Test

After the failure of the unmanned Osiris Lander test, MASEC is busy making adjustments and building a new vehicle for the expected manned test that will follow. They've decided to go ahead with a manned test, feeling confident they've solved the problem that caused the unmanned lander to crash. In the meantime, the second Osiris Development Mission will test a new ability for an existing piece of equipment. This mission is for the Flying Fix, the small SSTO Spaceplane that's done almost everything: It can get to orbit in all one stage, it can circumnavigate Kerbin with its jet engines inside the atmosphere, it can dock to space stations and refuel, and even travel to the moons for a brief visit. However, it was always planned to have it double as a rover as well, but other than Bob Kerman's visit to the north pole, which only required it to drive on perfectly smooth terrain, nobody's ever really tested what the Fox can do with its integrated, solar powered rover wheels. Mac and Wildon Kerman, who have been enjoying some time off since the return from Duna, have agreed to undertake this mission together. This is where they're going.

Mission Outline & Objectives

• Fly the Flying Fox SSTO with a full load of only jet fuel to a large island northeast of Kerbal Space Center
  
• Find a suitable place to land.
  
• Drive the aircraft as a rover from one side of the island to the other, over varied terrain, and test its limits on rover wheels.
  
• Take off and return to KSC.
  
• Crew: Mac Kerman (Pilot), Wildon Kerman (Co-pilot)
  

While the crews for Project Osiris haven't been announced, MASEC is utilizing the guys available on the ground for these test flights. It doesn't necessarily mean they'll be the ones going to Laythe, but that's possible. Nevertheless, having seen the plans for Phase 1, Mac Kerman had the following to say:

"My concern is fuel for the Flying Fox. The current plans would require it to land on Laythe with all the fuel and oxidizer it needs to return with, which will limit its effectiveness as a rover due to weight, and consume more fuel in the air for the same reason. Once kethane production starts on the surface this isn't an issue, but during Phase 1, I suggested they design a simple unmaned rocked-based refueling vehicle, that can carry extra fuel and oxidizer for the Foxes to make them more effective on the surface."

It's a good idea. So, MASEC is also designing such a vehicle as a temporary means of supporting Laythe ground operations until Phase 2. Once built, another Osiris Development Mission will be scheduled to test it. But that's down the road. Let's get down to business.

Mac and Wildon are the first guys not from the test pilot group to fly the spaceplane. This is indicative of its transfer to Project Osiris as an operational vehicle, rather than a test vehicle. Mac takes off from the KSC runway with Wildon in the back seat.

They stay relatively low, below 3km altitude, and follow the coastline northeast towards the target island. Here they see a smaller island off the coast, with a large mountain in the distance.

Mac: I can see our island ahead. The coastline looks pretty steep, though there's a gentler slope off to the left there, I think I can set us down.

Observing terrain from the air and scouting landing spots will be key on Laythe. To conserve fuel, the Fox should spend as much time on the ground as possible, where its electrically driven wheels can operate. Here they've turned slightly north, aiming for a gentle slope on the shoreline.

Wheels down with the engine off, they coast in, landing on a gentle upward slope.

A slightly bumpy landing, but nothing to be overly concerned about. The mission begins in the morning to give them maximum daylight. They take a moment to test getting out of the vehicle.

Wildon: The forward canard really makes it difficult to climb down the rear ladder. We'll have to make a note of that.

Mac: Ah damnit. We bottomed out going over that ridge.

The spaceplane has a wide unsupported undercarriage at the back end, making incidents like this possible. Also the bottom RCS quad is quite exposed. They hit this at slow speed, so there's no damage, and getting out is easy - they just have to lower the main landing gear to lift the Fox up, and keep going. But it's little things like this that are good to know in advance.

They reach an overlook, facing north, and stop a moment to admire the view. They landed on the northwest corner of the island and plan to drive around the northern coast, heading east.

Part of their journey takes them down along the water, testing out how the rover wheels handle sand. They can do a sustained 10m/s easily, and because of the wide rover wheelbase, they can turn rather sharply with basically no lean.

They take a break on a peninsula. Wildon gets out to examine a nearby boulder, while Mac walks out across the left wing. The Fox weighs about 12 tons, which is many many times more than the six-wheeled Fennec rover, but so far is handling beautifully.

Later in the day, they successfully navigate to the far side of the island, where there's a small mountain peak.

Mac: It looks like we can handle between 16 and 18 degrees up-slope without losing speed. I'm surprised, these rover wheels are pretty powerful.

Wildon: I think the weight actually helps us, as it gives good traction.

Mac: Yep. Plus they stiffened the back end after Bob noted it flexing during his drive at the north pole.

Wildon: You headed to the mountain? I don't think we'll be able to climb it, it's probably way more than 20 degrees.

Mac: You're probably right, but we're going to try anyway. I have an idea.

Mac's brilliant idea is to use low-level jet thrust to augment the wheels. You can see the exhaust here, only about 5% throttle, but its enough for them to hold a steady speed between 8 and 10 m/s up a slope of about 30 degrees!

They ascend to the upper plateau, and then Mac and Wildon climb the rest of the way to the highest point on the island. The Fox is visible parked in the background as they admire the view west over basically the entire island. In the far background is the mountain they passed on the way here, and at the far right of the frame is the peninsula they stopped at briefly.

Some problems on the way back down. They get a little too much speed hitting a bump and blow three of the four tires. Oops!

Fortunately they lift the aircraft on its main wheels and Mac gets out to do some repairs, and before long they're back in business!

Having put the aircraft through its paces and driven a considerable distance, they decide to do one more test. A short takeoff test. They apply the brakes and throttle up the engines, and release the brakes once they can't hold the Fox back anymore. Aiming to take off at the edge of the cliff visible in front of them.

Works just as planned! Soon enough they're back in the air! This move might not have been possible if they were carrying the extra weight of the oxidizer.

A look back at the whole island as they depart to head for home.

It's not long before they're on approach at KSC again, having successfully finished their mission.

Wildon: I can see why Jeb, Bill and Bob like this thing so much! Pretty impressive machine!

Mac: Sure is! One thing I don't like though is it doesn't have any equipment to get the topographical and slope map data, but that's just because this is an older design that pre-dates RAMSES mapping data. They'll have to fix that, but it'll be an easy upgrade. That data would really be handy for planning excursions, like we did on Duna.

Mac Kerman:

Wildon Kerman:

Edited July 13, 2014 by Cashen

[macdjord]

One possibility for handling the fuel-range issue: add a Firespitter electric propeller. It won't be fast, but it ought to keep you in the air indefinitely (as long as its in daylight).

[Cashen]

One possibility for handling the fuel-range issue: add a Firespitter electric propeller. It won't be fast, but it ought to keep you in the air indefinitely (as long as its in daylight).

If they can fly all the way around Kerbin on a full load of jet fuel, they can pretty much get anywhere on Laythe and return no problem. I had thought of using that electric propeller thing (when I had Firespitter installed - I don't, presently) to make an unmanned, solar powered Eve probe.

[Scotius]

Cashen, what about RAPIER engines? Swapping double engines of Flying Fox should give you some weight savings.

[FishInferno]

Good point. It makes sense to upgrade it with better technology.

[Cashen]

I think I'd looked at that and the weight savings was fairly low. You have to remember those AIES Constellation rocket engines only weigh 0.5 tons each - they're not the most efficient engines out there (The NovaPunch Aerospike has a much better specific impulse), but they were chosen specifically because they weigh almost nothing. I think I calculated that switching to RAPIER's would save about 1 ton of weight. That 1 ton of weight would come with the fact that the RAPIERs in air-breathing mode are much less efficient than the B9 turbojet I currently use, which is key since on Laythe the jet engines are the more important ones. I don't know if it would be able to circumnavigate Kerbin if I switched to RAPIERs. Another reason is that having two engines to each side makes it real easy to make the wings wide enough to get lift, and I've deliberately avoided the bi-plane look because I don't like the aesthetics of it.

I might still look at it though, we'll see.

Edited May 12, 2014 by Cashen

[FishInferno]

I think I'd looked at that and the weight savings was fairly low. You have to remember those AIES Constellation rocket engines only weigh 0.5 tons each - they're not the most efficient engines out there (The NovaPunch Aerospike has a much better specific impulse), but they were chosen specifically because they weigh almost nothing. I think I calculated that switching to RAPIER's would save about 1 ton of weight. That 1 ton of weight would come with the fact that the RAPIERs in air-breathing mode are much less efficient than the B9 turbojet I currently use, which is key since on Laythe the jet engines are the more important ones. I don't know if it would be able to circumnavigate Kerbin if I switched to RAPIERs. Another reason is that having two engines to each side makes it real easy to make the wings wide enough to get lift, and I've deliberately avoided the bi-plane look because I don't like the aesthetics of it.

I might still look at it though, we'll see.

Fair enough:)

[Cashen]

Fair enough:)

What I've thought of doing instead is building a smaller jet-only aircraft/rover for after Phase 2 when I don't have to worry about it ever getting off of Laythe again.

[FishInferno]

So, eventually, will the jool bases be self-sustainable?

[Cashen]

So, eventually, will the jool bases be self-sustainable?

Surface operations on Laythe would be sustained with Laythe's Kethane and space operations with kethane from Bop and Pol, in theory.

EDIT: I went back and did the math, since you guys brought up a worthwhile point about the RAPIER and weight savings, and I wanted to make sure my reasoning was actually correct. Here's what I came up with:

B9 Turbojet: Atmospheric ISP is 1400, thrust is 225, weight is 1.3

AIES Constellation: ISP is 320 (Atmospheric) and 370 (Vaccum), thrust is 200, weight is 0.5

The two together weigh 1.8

RAPIER: In jet mode, atmospheric ISP is 800, thrust is 190. Rocket mode, ISP is 320 (Atmospheric) and 360 (Vaccum), thrust is 175. Weight is 1.75.

So you can see in most respects the AIES + B9 combination is actually better. This is harder to translate to larger spaceplanes though, because space considerations are more important, which is why I was seemingly unable to make a large SSTO before the RAPIER made the Horus Shuttle possible. Can you imagine trying to put TWELVE engines on the Shuttle? The RAPIER can do it in just six. That's the real advantage of the RAPIER.

Edited May 12, 2014 by Cashen

[FishInferno]

Wow, that is surprising, but useful, information:)

[Cashen]

Osiris Development Mission 3: Refueling Vehicle Test

Before we get started, some minor changes were made to the Flying Fox after the last mission. Let's have a look:

Subtle changes. First, the forward canards were moved back slightly to make more room for the co-pilot/passenger to climb down his ladder. Second, smaller RCS quads were used, and while they have less power, they save a little weight. Their smaller size increases the clearance. The biggest change is switching to landing gear provided by B9 Aerospace, instead of the in-house designs, which reduces weight. Also, a receiver module was added to allow the Fox to integrate into the topographical mapping data. A forward facing light was added just behind the camera, as well. The changes shed about 1,200kg of weight from the Fox in all, a fairly substantial weight savings.

But the real reason we're here is to test a brand new vehicle, the Osiris Unmanned Refueling Vehicle, or URV. This vehicle will be a temporary stop-gap to supplying the Flying Foxes with fuel during Phase 1 on Laythe, when the surface infrastructure isn't in place yet.

This is what the vehicle looks like. The outboard tanks carry cargo fuel. The two white tanks carry fuel and oxidizer, with enough capacity to totally refuel a Flying Fox from empty and allow it to get back into orbit. The four grey tanks carry only jet fuel, and each can fully refuel the Fox's jet fuel tanks. Normal procedure will be for this vehicle to drop onto Laythe from orbit full on liquid fuel but with the cargo oxidizer tanks empty. The Flying Fox will then come in either fully tanked, or with a small amount of fuel and full oxidizer. It'll then store its oxidizer temporarily in the URV, and explore Laythe using the available jet fuel. When time comes to return to orbit, the Fox will pick up its oxidizer and fly away. The main core tank of the URV is its own internal fuel supply that it needs to get back into orbit with. However, with its cargo tanks full, the URV cannot get back into orbit, nor does it even have a thrust to weight ratio above 1. Only when its cargo of fuel is used up, will it then be able to ascend into Laythe orbit to pick up more fuel. Until Phase 2, this vehicle MUST be on the surface, for safety reasons, if the Flying Foxes are doing expeditions.

Mission Outline & Objectives

• First flight of the Osiris Unmanned Refueling Vehicle (URV)
  
• Launch into low Kerbin orbit and dock to UKS Kerbin Station to take on a full load of fuel.
  
• De-orbit, re-enter, and perform a precision landing on KSC property.
  
• Drive an un-fueled Flying Fox to the URV's landing site and test fuel transfer abilities.
  

The URV launches just like the lander did, atop a large SRB. Its own fuel tanks are full, but the radial cargo tanks are empty to save weight. Kerbin Station will again be providing the extra fuel.

Staging, and the URV is on its own power. It carries two NovaPunch Aerospike engines mounted on the core. Note that one of the two decouplers broke during staging, and the 1.25m interstage went flying off to the side. No damage to the vehicle.

An up-close look at the URV in orbit. It sports two drogue parachutes on the LFO tanks, and four huge mains on the LF tanks, plus two radial mains on the core.

Here we see the vehicle docked to Kerbin Station, taking on a full load of fuel, to test landing at maximum weight.

Re-entry begins close to KSC. A different method is being used to calculate this landing. What it is, is me using MechJeb's estimated landing location. As is usual when I play KSP, I do the flying, not MechJeb (I especially do NOT trust MechJeb to land anything anywhere. All of my landings have been manual throttle and planning, using SmartASS to hold the attitude I want). So I'd never really touched the landing guidance tab before, until I realized it will display a projected landing location when you de-orbit. So I burned retrograde on the opposite side of Kerbin until the estimated landing site was on top of KSC.

The technique works beautifully. The drogue chutes come out and it looks like the URV will land just to the side of one end of the runway.

Mains deploy, and the vehicle touches down at 8.5 m/s. A little fast, but doable. I might add more chutes as a safety margin.

Jebediah and Bill take a Flying Fox with empty tanks over to the URV's landing location. Bill tests dismounting from the rear seat with the changed canard location, and that works. Then Jeb drags the winch-mounted fuel line from the URV over to the Fox and performs a successful fuel transfer, validating the concept. This is a big step in the right direction for the exploration of Laythe.

Edited July 13, 2014 by Cashen

[FishInferno]

Yay! Another successful test by the MASEC:)

[macdjord]

If they can fly all the way around Kerbin on a full load of jet fuel, they can pretty much get anywhere on Laythe and return no problem. I had thought of using that electric propeller thing (when I had Firespitter installed - I don't, presently) to make an unmanned, solar powered Eve probe.

The question isn't how far they can fly, it's how far they can fly and still return to orbit without refueling.

Another option would be to just integrate the Kethane rig right into the Fox. A small converter, small drill, and radial tank don't weight much put together.

[FishInferno]

That's why he has the resupply lander, so e can refuel the fox

[macdjord]

That's why he has the resupply lander, so e can refuel the fox

He didn't have that when this conversation started.

[Cashen]

He didn't have that when this conversation started.

True! Though in actuality I had the craft designed for a long time, since this is all mapped out way in advance (usually)

The original plans for operations on Laythe pre-date the Horus Shuttle, so the refueler kind of got shelved for a while when I realized the Shuttle could do that. Splitting things up into phases is a new idea and that's brought the refueler back to life. At least for now.

Edited May 14, 2014 by Cashen

[Cashen]

Osiris Development Mission 4: Jool Optimized Kethane Extraction

The fourth of five planned pre-Phase 1 development missions, this flight will be a more complicated mission to test the type of kethane production that will be used at Bop and Pol once operations around Jool are established. It pairs two vehicles. The Hercules MkIII Heavy Nuclear Tug, a specialized and smaller four-engine tug, similar to the designs seen a long while ago, and the Amphion MkII, an upgrade on the existing Amphion Kethane Extraction and Recovery Vehicle in use at Minmus.

Mission Outline & Objectives

• First flight of the Hercules MkIII HNT and the Amphion MkII KERV.
  
• Launch the tug and dock it to Kerbin station.
  
• Launch Amphion and dock it to the tug at Kerbin Station. Fuel up both vehicles.
  
• Transfer crew in from Kerbin Station.
  
• Undock the combined spacecraft and send them to Minmus.
  
• Undock Amphion, land, and produce a batch of kethane.
  
• Launch from Minmus, re-dock to the tug, and return to Kerbin Station
  
• Crew: Neweny Kerman (Commander), Nelgard Kerman (Kethane Geologist)
  

The first launch, in the evening, is the unmanned nuclear-engine tug. It uses four of the FtMN 240 engines, with the highest power and efficiency, and what MASEC engineers think should be enough fuel capacity for the mission. It launches atop a truncated Lupus V, with the L-IC and L-IVB stages stacked together, omitting the L-II.

Staging, L-IC falling back. The tug is designed to use large docking ports at both ends. However, Kerbin Station was never designed to work with large docking ports, so the nose of the tug contains an adapter piece that will be affixed to Kerbin Station to fix that.

The L-IVB stage reaches apoapsis and transfers its remaining fuel up into the tug's otherwise empty tanks. Just enough to get to the station.

At this point, the tug has performed the first docking, and attached the adapter to the station. It then undocks and turns around 180 degrees to orient itself properly for Amphion to dock to it. The two craft are weight optimized for their specific roles. The tug for example has no batteries, or many solar panels. Since the lander requires a lot of power for the drills, it contains the solar panels and batteries, and will provide the electrical power for the tug when combined. However, the lander has no RCS fuel, since the tug is envisioned as being the active participant in docking. This means the weight of the monopropellant doesn't need to be carried down to Minmus and back up.

The next morning, we see the unmanned launch of Amphion MKII. A much more optimized design, this uses the same engine but increases the kethane capacity from 96,000L to 120,000L, and should still be able to launch full from Minmus (or Bop for that matter).

This vehicle uses a slightly different launcher. THe L-IVC upper stage provides a little more power, since Amphion is heavier. Also, since Amphion was designed not to hold any RCS fuel (its RCS thrusters are intended for use when docked to the tug), a small Orbital Maneuvering Stage that contains a small amount of RCS is included.

Amphion uses a single FtMN 240 engine, but shown here is the orbital stage with it's small SPS engine performing the orbital circularizing. This stage will be used to perform the rendezvous and docking but will be jettisoned later.

Here we see the combined vehicle docked to Kerbin Station. Neweny and Nelgard EVA over to Amphion's crew cabin, and the vehicle takes on fuel. A lot of fuel, in fact. One of the things that will be measured during this mission is the fuel consumption, and the amount of kethane required to replenish it, relative to the amount recovered.

The combined vehicle undocks, and makes the transfer burn to Minmus. Standard ejection followed by a mid-course plane change.

The view back to Kerbin during the long coast to Minmus. Four burns in all: Minmus injection, plane correction, orbital capture, and another inclination change, to get into low Minmus orbit.

Amphion undocks and begins the de-orbit. A mistake in the orbital stage design (it lacked a means of control) meant it could not automatically de-orbit at Kerbin. So, they had to carry it to Minmus and dump it there, to avoid making it a piece of debris.

When landing empty, Amphion is relatively light, and has lots of power. The landing consumes hardly any fuel at all. The reservoir they're landing on holds 178,000 liters of kethane.

Landed and drilling. It takes the whole remainder of the Minmus day, but they fill all the kethane tanks to maximum by sunset.

As usual, the lander was not designed for EVA, but Neweny and Nelgard get out and walk around a little on the surface of Minmus. A couple of rookies, this is their first visit to the surface of another celestial body.

The pair sleep during the Minmus night, and lift off the next morning. The data shows a TWR of 1.5, but it seemed like a lot less than that, as Amphion just crawls into space on a column of thrust. The burn into orbit would take nearly 10 solid minutes. The vehicle at liftoff weighed in excess of 330 tons, substantially more than a fully loaded Amphion MkI, at 260 tons.

Neweny is, however, able to perform a first feat for MASEC: He achives an unassisted direct-ascent rendezvous. That is, without any autopilot assistance, he was able to go from the surface to an orbit with an intercept (on the first orbit) with one long single rocket burn. No separate ascent, circularizing and rendezvous burns. It would only require a minor correction burn.

A good look at Kerbin on the way back. To save fuel, they plot an aggressive aerobrake, attempting to get their apoapsis down to just 250km in one pass.

Peak of aerobrake heating effects. It's a successful aerobrake, and they get an apoapsis of around 239km in one pass.

The pair plot their rendezvous burn just after emerging from the atmosphere.

Re-docked to Kerbin Station, the mission is complete.

Results: The crew extracted 120,000L of kethane from Minmus, and in the process the combined Hercules/Amphion spacecraft consumed 4,836L of fuel, 5,911 of oxidizer, and 52L of monopropellant. To replace that would require 26,786 L of Kethane, leaving 93,214L or 77.7% of the batch for use. This is a kind of efficiency rating or "profit margin" so to speak, and is considered quite good. No figure exists for the existing Amphion/Zethus combination from Minmus to Kerbin, but you can bet eventually one will be determined.

However, the vessel return to Kerbin Station with about 500 m/s of delta-V remaining. The ejection to Minmus takes about 900 m/s or so, and the return about 300 m/s. A transfer to Bop or Pol would probably consumed between 1100 and 1300 m/s and the return about 500 m/s. Long story short, a margin of 500 m/s in this case is not enough. So, this tug is not good enough. There were some other issues with it as well, including the engine pods flexing during engine firing, and the lack of tug battery capacity, which makes docking at "night" effectively impossible. So, this tug will not go to Jool in this capacity. The fix is easy though - a battery, some more solar panels, and slightly larger outboard fuel tanks will be more than enough to do the job. Another test flight shouldn't be necessary. The existing tug of course has nuclear engines and can't just be de-orbited. It's also an expensive piece of hardware. It can be put to good use, though - as a normal tug, it will probably ferry some pieces of UKS Laythe Station, alongside one of the larger Hercules MkIIs still in orbit left over from Mun Station's construction.

Neweny Kerman:

Nelgard Kerman:

Edited July 13, 2014 by Cashen