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

[SuperWeegee4000]

I remember the first time I landed on the Mun.... and I didn't have enough fuel to get back. Hopefully, these Kerbonauts won't encounter anything similar when landing on the Mun.

The terminology is strange, if you think about it. Most moons are called moons, not Muns, so the Mun must have its own name, unlike our moon, which is just called "the moon."

[Specula]

I remember the first time I landed on the Mun.... and I didn't have enough fuel to get back. Hopefully, these Kerbonauts won't encounter anything similar when landing on the Mun.

The terminology is strange, if you think about it. Most moons are called moons, not Muns, so the Mun must have its own name, unlike our moon, which is just called "the moon."

This is the problem with calling something the same thing as the category it classifies as, isn't it? I get the impression in KSP that 'Mun' is it's name, while natural satellites like Gilly, Laythe, Minmus and yes, even Mun, are still called 'moons'.

It'd make things easier if they just gave 'the moon' a distinct name. Especially once humanity became interstellar, space faring people, names like 'the sun' or 'the moon' are going to become completely redundant...

Edited August 2, 2013 by Specula

[SuperWeegee4000]

This is the problem with calling something the same thing as the category it classifies as, isn't it? I get the impression in KSP that 'Mun' is it's name, while natural satellites like Gilly, Laythe, Minmus and yes, even Mun, are still called 'moons'.

It'd make things easier if they just gave 'the moon' a distinct name. Especially once humanity became interstellar, space faring people, names like 'the sun' or 'the moon' are going to become completely redundant...

That's what you get from the Tracking Station and the like. See, what's interesting is that the Tracking Station calls it the Mun, which signifies that "mun" is some sort of common noun. Somewhat but not entirely unlike the Sun, which is named for, well, a sun.

[Cashen]

I go by the convention that the object's name is simply "Mun" but that the generalized term is still "moons". Hence, I try to never refer to it as "the Mun" but simply "Mun". That's just my own convention. Anyway, time to run the next mission.

[Cashen]

Aten IV

We're ready to do one last test flight before going to the moons. This will be an all-up test of the complete delivery package, including the Lupus V rocket and the Aten MLRM lander. Also, three new Kerbals have joined MASEC ranks as kerbonauts: Milgas, Wildon, and Kennie Kerman are all geologists that specialize in kethane, to provide expertise for the landing missions. In all, the missions will have three crew. One of the engineers will act as Mission Commander, who will also fly the MLRM. One of the test pilots will be CSM pilot, and stay with the CSM in orbit. Accompanying the Commander will be one of the geologists, acting as a Mission Specialist.

Mission Outline & Objectives:

• First flight of the Lupus V launch vehicle and the Aten MLRM
  
• Launch into a high-apoapsis ballistic trajectory (2000km or so) without circularizing.
  
• During the coast to apoapsis, perform the Transposition, Docking, and Extraction (TD&E) maneuver to withdraw the MLRM from the spend L-IVB.
  
• At apoapsis, burn to lift periapsis above the atmosphere, then circularize at periapsis.
  
• Transfer the Commander and Mission Specialist to the MLRM and undock.
  
• CSM will move to an orbit of 200km, MLRM will orbit at 75km. MLRM will test all systems in Kerbin orbit.
  
• CSM will then rendezvous and dock with the MLRM, crew will be transferred back, and the spacecraft de-orbited for crew return.
  
• Commander: Milke Kerman
  
• CSM Pilot: Bill Kerman
  
• Mission Specialist: Wildon Kerman
  

The launch of the mighty Lupus V. Aten IV is underway. Note the rocket's shadow cast on the ground behind KSC.

L-I separation just after pitchover, L-II ignites.

L-II separation, the L-IVB continues burning to push the apoapsis up to 2000km, giving a long coast for the TD&E maneuver.

The CSM separates from the L-IVB, Bill uses the thrusters to inch forward and away.

Once clear, the MLRM would boot up and use its internal reaction wheels to pivot the entire L-IVB away from the CSM, detach the shroud that covers the MLRM, and then pivot back to face the CSM, placing the shroud and decoupler out of the way. The top of the lander can now be seen inside the L-IVB

Bill turns the CSM around and activates the docking camera, moving in for docking and extraction.

Docking is successful.

The MLRM is successfully extracted from the spent L-IVB

Near apoapsis. The CSM camera tracks the L-IVB. The spent parts are on a high ballistic trajectory that will take them back into Kerbin's atmosphere. In an actual moon mission, the spent parts would be left on an impact course with either moon. The complete Aten spacecraft would do a small burn to lift their trajectory above the atmosphere. The high apoapsis was done to simulate a long coast to Mun.

A much longer burn to bring the apoapsis back down and circularize. After this, Milke and Wildon would crawl through the docking hatch into the MLRM.

Once inside, they would undock and turn, performing a small burn to lower their orbit from 100km to 75km. Bill would also lift the CSM up to 200km. In a real moon landing, the undocking would take place at a low altitude, and the CSM would then boost to a higher orbit. This is meant to simulate that mission profile.

The two spacecraft photograph each other as they begin to drift apart. The plan was for the MLRM to circle all the way around relative to the CSM's orbit, catching up to it prior to the CSM dropping down to rendezvous with it.

Milke performs an EVA during their shakedown of the lander.

Wildon familiarizes himself with the drilling equipment.

Rendezvous took place on the night side of Kerbin. Here, the CSM's docking lights illuminate the MLRM.

Bill moves in for a docking, before Milke and Wildon move back into the CSM.

The CSM uses the last of its fuel to perform the de-orbit burn.

Once de-orbited, and just above the atmosphere, the empty MLRM is undocked, followed by service module separation.

Splashdown off the coast of KSC. All spacecraft systems performed perfectly.

Next stop, Mun.

Milke:

Wildon:

Bill:

Edited May 1, 2014 by Cashen

[Cashen]

This is the problem with calling something the same thing as the category it classifies as, isn't it? I get the impression in KSP that 'Mun' is it's name, while natural satellites like Gilly, Laythe, Minmus and yes, even Mun, are still called 'moons'.

It'd make things easier if they just gave 'the moon' a distinct name. Especially once humanity became interstellar, space faring people, names like 'the sun' or 'the moon' are going to become completely redundant...

The moon more or less does have a distinct name. Well, there's a few, but the most popular one aside from "Moon" is Luna. We should really just start calling it that.

[Thordan Ssoa]

This is the problem with calling something the same thing as the category it classifies as, isn't it? I get the impression in KSP that 'Mun' is it's name, while natural satellites like Gilly, Laythe, Minmus and yes, even Mun, are still called 'moons'.

It'd make things easier if they just gave 'the moon' a distinct name. Especially once humanity became interstellar, space faring people, names like 'the sun' or 'the moon' are going to become completely redundant...

In addition to what Cashen said, our sun does, in fact, have a name: Sol. Or, at least, that was my impression.

[Specula]

The moon more or less does have a distinct name. Well, there's a few, but the most popular one aside from "Moon" is Luna. We should really just start calling it that.

True, but in the same was our Sun's distinct name might be 'Sol', it's not official. It's a sci-fi staple, and nothing more unfortunately. I'd prefer it be otherwise, but them's the breaks unfortunately. =\

[Cashen]

Aten V

The test flights are over. It's time to put the first Kerbals on Mun.

Mission Outline & Objectives:

• Land the Moon Land & Return Module on a kethane reservoir the surface of Mun.
  
• Collect a 150L sample of kethane for reutrn to Kerbin for analysis.
  
• Use the EVA RCS backpacks to explore the region around the landing site.
  
• Return to Mun orbit for rendezvous and crew transfer with the CSM.
  
• Teansfer the kethane sample from the MLRM's sample bottle to the CSM's.
  
• Undock and discard the MLRM and return to Kerbin.
  
• Commander: Mac Kerman
  
• CSM Pilot: Bob Kerman
  
• Mission Specialist: Milgas Kerman
  

The usual engineer/pilot pairings have been shuffled up. Mac, who was previously paired with Jebediah for Aten 3, is now paired with Bob. It's been decided Mac, who performed the first ever rendezvous and docking during Geb 7, will be the first Kerbal to set foot on another celestial body. Jebediah will be CSM Pilot for Aten VI, paired with Dunlie, for the mission to Minmus that will follow this one.

Aten V's launch is timed to coincide with sunrise at the landing site, to ensure maximum daylight on arrival.

The rocket is slightly difficult to control. In testing it's been discovered that the best method is to wait until L-I separation, which happens at around 9km, and then do the gravity turn with the L-II.

The L-II provides all but 100m/s of the final orbit velocity, the L-IVB provides the final circularization. Three quarters of an orbit later, the Mun Injection Burn took place to set the spacecraft on a (temporary) impact course with Mun.

Here the navigation computer shows the plot after the MI burn. Everything looks good.

The TD&E maneuver, Bob docks with the MLRM and pulls it out of the L-IVB. Once free of the spent upper stage, a slight correction of about 12m/s with the service module engine would put them on a course for a Mun periapsis of around 7km. The upper stage, shroud, and decoupler would crash into Mun. Note a slight addition to the lander, a small kethane scanner on its roof.

"KSC, this is Aten 5, we have arrived at Mun and are performing the orbital insertion burn."

Mac and Milgas transfer over to the MLRM and undock. They then perform a slight inclination and periapsis adjustment to fine tune their landing site. The landing was a little scary. Having underestimated the height of land on Mun, they set the periapsis to just 5km above the reference altitude, and when they reached the landing zone, realized this meant they were hurtling at 550m/s at just 1500m above the ground. It's a good thing the MLRM was designed with the more powerful Orbital Bertha engine, as Mac showed his skills once more, killing lateral velocity down below 1m/s quickly, and rapidly orienting the lander legs-down with just 500m to the surface. The landing went well, sadly I was too busy performing the landing in such tight quarters to take pictures of it.

Mac takes a moment to catch his breath after the landing, and admire the view of Kerbin out the window.

Milgas, who is a geologist by trade but was given special training for this mission, activates the kethane drills. Drilling down into the reservoir below, they hit pay-dirt, and succeed in extracting 150L of kethane for return to Kerbin. This was performed before the EVA, in case there was an emergency abort: at least they would have something to take back with them.

With the kethane sample safely aboard, the drills are retracted, and Mac lowers the ladder and prepares to step onto Mun for the first time. A historic day for the United Kerbin States!

Milgas joins Mac on the surface, and the UKS flag is planted. Their primary objective complete, now it's time to do a little exploration.

After gathering some soil samples for return to Kerbin, they use their EVA RCS packs to head about 500m east to the rim of a large crater. "Wow, what a view. It has a beauty all its own," Milgas remarks.

Milgas looks quite excited to study this large boulder. But he's a geologist, this is what he does. It being on Mun makes it that much more special.

Mac tests how high the EVA packs can go. Pretty high! Both of them become quite skilled at performing long distance hops using them. Milgas wipes out a couple of times, but nothing serious.

Bob remains in a low orbit overhead, studying and taking photos of Mun from above. Here he snaps a shot of Kerbin rising, just a few minutes before flying over the landing site.

At just six kilometers up, Bob is able to get a good zoomed view of Mac and Milgas' landing site, close enough to see them and the planted flag. The view out the window also shows the edge of the crater they landed next to.

Bob: I always wanted to come back here after that flyby in Geb 5. Back then the closest I got was 900km. The view from 6km is spectacular.

Mac: We got a good look at you as you flew past. The view from down here is pretty fine too.

After a couple of hours on Mun, the two explorers climb back into the MLRM and take off , putting themselves into a low, 6km orbit. By this point, Bob has raised the orbit of the CSM to 26km, to allow Mac to catch up to him.

One full orbit later, Bob performs a transfer back down to rendezvous with Mac and Milgas.

The crew transferred over to the CSM, and the kethane sample was pumped over to the CSM's sample bottle. Afterwards, the MLRM undocked, and automatically spent its remaining fuel to de-orbit itself. The Lazor Camera on the CSM tracked the MLRM's descent all the way to impact on the surface whereupon it was destroyed. I wasn't able to capture the explosion in a screenshot because it happened very fast. Regardless, the mission complete, they burn to escape Mun and return home.

Re-entry at Kerbin, with the service module disintegrating in the background. The return trajectory had them re-entering over land, so this would be the first hard landing.

The heavy capsule touched down quite hard. Hard enough that the Lazor Camera was knocked clear off the capsule and smashed on the ground (normally it is affixted to the capsule just behind the docking port and between the front facing windows). The impact also dislodged the kethane bottle, which fell to the ground, but remained intact. Here the crew get out and inspect their capsule, happy to be home after such a historic mission.

Mac:

Milgas:

Bob:

Edited May 1, 2014 by Cashen

[Cashen]

Aten VI

Analysis indicates that the sample of kethane returned from Mun is in fact kethane, and of a quality suitable for processing into fuels with existing technology. This is excellent news. Already plans to utilize this source of fuel for future interplanetary missions, and for in-situ resource utilization, are being drawn up. However, if kethane is to be extracted from the Kerbin system, the most optimal location to get it is a body with low gravity. Minmus. MASEC mission planners and management have decided that this flight, Aten VI, the mission to land on Minmus, will be the final flight of Project Aten. A follow-up project will utilize the techniques and technology developed by the Aten missions to establish a more permanent home in space.

Mission Outline & Objectives:

• Land the Moon Land & Return Module on a kethane reservoir the surface of Minmus.
  
• Collect a 150L sample of kethane for reutrn to Kerbin for analysis.
  
• Use the EVA RCS backpacks to explore the region around the landing site.
  
• Re-orbit and perform a second landing, attempting a precision landing at the ILP Minmus site.
  
• Teansfer the kethane sample from the MLRM's sample bottle to the CSM's.
  
• Undock and discard the MLRM and return to Kerbin.
  
• Commander: Dunlie Kerman
  
• CSM Pilot: Jebediah Kerman
  
• Mission Specialist: Kennie Kerman
  

Aten VI launches directly into Minmus' orbital plane. Unlike previous missions, this is at a descending node, so the inclination will be 6 degrees south instead of north. It also took place at night.

This launch proved extremely tricky and nearly resulted in an abort. The second stage would not pitch properly: First it pitched too far down, wasting fuel in the lower atmosphere, and then the crew over-corrected to pitch up, resulting in a very sharp ballistic trajectory up to apoapsis, which meant the L-IVB would need to provide 700m/s to circularize, rather than the 100m/s in the previous mission. This meant the L-IVB had just enough fuel to complete the Minmus Injection Burn, but very little margin for error.

Having learned from the Isis team, the separation and docking maneuver would wait until crossing into Minmus' sphere of influence. To get an impact trajectory, the L-IVB had to spend every last liter of fuel during a correction burn.

Jeb backs away with the lander docked successfully.

"KSC, this is 6, Minmus insertion is successful. Our orbit is 6km by 8km. It's currently night at the landing zone, we will remain in orbit until sunrise, over."

Sunrise arrives at the landing site three orbits later. Dunlie and Kennie crawl through the hatch and fire up the MLRM, before undocking and preparing for a descent.

The landing site is on top of this pleateau. Here Dunlie performs the braking burn, at a much higher altitude than Mac did when landing on Mun, about four kilometers above the ground.

The landing goes by smoothly, and Dunlie can admire the surface of Minmus.

Same procedure as before. Kennie fires up the drills and they successfully extract 150L of kethane. All instrumentation onboard shows that it is kethane and would be perfectly suitable for fuel processing.

Dunlie is the first Kerbal to set foot on Minmus. Kennie soon joins him, and they plant the UKS flag.

Kennie: Almost no impact craters anywhere. The surface must be very young.

Dunlie: What gives it the green color? Some kind of mineral?

Kennie: Yes. Or a salt or something. We'll have to take samples back for analysis. These rocks seem strangely out of place though.

Dunlie: A flat plane. We saw a bunch of those from orbit.

Kennie: I think at some point the surface must have been molten, like after an impact, or volcanism, and the green mineral pooled in low areas, before freezing flat like this. That would explain the darker color of it as well.

Dunlie: Might explain the rocks, too. There's none down there. But in the highlands, maybe the green mineral coating is thinner, which explains the rock outcroppings.

After taking samples and doing more investigation, the pair make their way back to the lander for the next phase of their mission. Here Jebediah flies overhead and takes a photo of the landing site.

The engineers decided to design one lander rather than two different ones, and they used Mun's gravity and size as the design basis. As a result, while the MLRM has enough fuel to land on Mun once, on Minmus it's slightly overpowered and could land two or three times easily without refueling. Here Dunlie and Kennie launch back into a low orbit, with the plan to perform a precision landing at the site of the ILP Minmus probe. Note Kerbin and Mun in the background.

Not bad. Certainly within walking distance!

"It's a lot bigger than I thought it was."

Jeb seems to like using the Lazor Cam. "Say cheese, guys."

Dunlie and Kennie examine the wreckage of the Orbital Bertha engine that delivered the probe to Minmus. This is the same engine that powers their lander, and Jeb's CSM. "NovaPunch makes some sturdy engines."

The mission complete, they get back in the lander and take off for orbit. At the same time, Jeb boosts his orbit up to nearly 40km so the lander can catch up.

Another night rendezvous and docking. The lights and cameras really make it easy, though.

As before, the crew transfer over, and the kethane is pumped across, before the lander is undocked and de-orbited. Here the CSM's camera tracks its descent, snapping this photo just a second or two before it crashed into the surface on that slope.

Burning to escape Minmus and come home.

The return trajectory brought them close to Mun, but not close enough to enter its sphere of influence.

Service module separation just before entering the atmosphere. This re-entry trajectory was quite steep. Here both modules can be seen. Just after this photo was taken, the service module's solar panels disintegrated.

A successful splashdown. Project Aten comes to a close.

The samples proved conclusively that kethane exists in a useful form on both moons. The next chapter will develop the means to extract and process it, as well as developing a more permanent presence in space.

Dunlie:

Kennie:

Jebediah:

Edited May 1, 2014 by Cashen

[Chewie]

I really enjoy your mission update blog! Keep it up.

[Cashen]

Chapter 3: A Home in Space

Project Newet

At the conclusion of project Aten, several things became obvious. Continued exploration of the Kerbin system, and places beyond, will require a more permanent home in space, and it will require more cost-effective reusable vehicles. Of the six Aten flights, the only equipment to come back and be recovered each time was the capsule, everything else having been expended. The upcoming projects will see great technological development. Many new vehicles must be designed to perform different tasks. Above all however, MASEC has decided their next major goal will be the construction of a space station in orbit around Kerbin. It will perform the following functions:

• Must have a sizeable crew capacity, at least 8 Kerbals.
  
• Must contain numerous docking ports and facilities to act as a waystation for vessels leaving Kerbin and returning to Kerbin.
  
• Must have a large supply of propellants to act as a refueling station.
  
• Should be able to import and process kethane into fuels.
  
• Powered purely by solar power with battery backups.
  
• Optimum orbit of 125km, perfectly circular and equatorial.
  
• Be simple and functional, only large enough to accomplish the stated goals, but must also be modular.
  

This will constitute Phase 1 of Project Newet. Once the station is operational and crewed, attention will turn to Minmus.

How to get kethane from Minmus:

Several options for this have been discussed. The first and simplest was to construct a single vehicle, with a high capacity for kethane, that would depart from Kerbin Station, go to Minmus, land, deploy drills to extract kethane, and return to Kerbin. This would be a simple and effective method, but would require the mining craft carry the drills as well as enough fuel for the round trip, or alternatively carry less fuel but carry onboard converters.

Another option is to have another station in orbit around Minmus. Since long-term exploration of both moons is also a goal, this would facilitate both objectives at once. A drilling vehicle could be made to depart from this station, land, extract, and return. Less fuel would be needed and no converters necessary. A second vehicle could then be designed to carry either raw kethane or processed fuels back to Kerbin, without also having to carry the extra weight of drills or converters.

The third option is the most efficient but the most technically challenging. The drilling would be ground based, either from static 'wells' dropped on top of reservoirs, or from a mobile drilling platform. The roving option is more complex still, as rover design is a new concept for MASEC, but would allow for one piece of equipment that could move from one reservoir to another. The static well idea would leave depleted wells on the surface as debris, though that's not too terrible. It would require precision landings, or a craft that could hover while moving laterally to correct its landing, to get close enough to the well for transfer.

At the present time, the first option has been excluded and MASEC is considering either options two or three.

Long term exploration & support vehicles

Again, more than one option exists for long-term exploration of the moons:

Option one is to build a base on the surface, from which land-based rovers would be able to drive and explore. Landing or constructing a base on the surface of a moon is a potentially challenging endeavour and this makes this the more complex of the two options.

The second option is to be based from orbit. A lander based on the Aten MLRM would be designed to be re-used, ferrying back and forth from the orbital station, and preferably designed to carry a rover with it, with the ability to return with the rover also for re-use. This option seems elegant because a lander could land at any particular point, acting as a temporary base, and explore a wide area with a rover, before returning to the orbital base.

Given the advantages of the second option, MASEC has chosen it for the time being. The two options are not mutually exclusive, either. Surface bases could simply come later and operate in parallel to orbital ones.

This means several craft need to be designed, built, and tested:

• A lander capable of landing two Kerbals on either moon. It must have its own RCS system since it will dock with a stationary orbital base. It must carry a two-man rover with it, with the ability to re-attach the rover to the lander before taking off again.
  
• A small two-man rover suitable for driving across the surface of Mun and Minmus. It should be stable at reasonable speeds, carry the necessary scientific equipment, and be able to re-attach to the lander as mentioned earlier.
  
• A crew transport vehicle, based on the Aten CSM, to ferry Kerbals between all of the different stations. It should have a high crew capacity, as many as six or seven Kerbals.
  
• A reliable and re-useable, or partly-reuseable vehicle for lanching Kerbals into orbit to meet with the orbital station there.
  

Nuclear Rockets?

A recent and exciting development from Nucleonics Ltd., who normally specialize in nuclear power generation, is their FatMan series of Nuclear-Chemical Hybrid Rockets. They operate with a similar principle to an ordinary rocket, but they contain a small nuclear reactor. Fuel, after passing through the engine bell cooling loops, is then routed through the core of a nuclear reactor to pre-heat it to very high temperatures. The superheated fuel then mixes with oxidizer in the combustion chamber and ignites on contact due to the extremely high temperatures. The combustion then further heats the final exhaust giving it tremendous velocity, and producing extremely high vaccuum ISP, at the cost of very low thrust-to-weight ratios and atmospheric ISP.

MASEC testing Nucleonics FTmN 40, the smallest of the nuclear hybrid rockets.

[TABLE=class: grid, width: 100%, align: center]

[TR]

[TD]Manufacturer

[/TD]

[TD]Name

[/TD]

[TD]Size (m)

[/TD]

[TD]Thrust (kN)

[/TD]

[TD]Mass (t)

[/TD]

[TD]TWR

[/TD]

[TD]Vac ISP

[/TD]

[TD]Atm ISP

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Nucleonics Ltd.

[/TD]

[TD]FTmN 40

[/TD]

[TD]1.25m[/TD]

[TD]40

[/TD]

[TD]1.5

[/TD]

[TD]2.72

[/TD]

[TD]740

[/TD]

[TD]240

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Nucleonics Ltd.

[/TD]

[TD]FTmN 90

[/TD]

[TD]2.50m

[/TD]

[TD]90

[/TD]

[TD]3.4

[/TD]

[TD]2.70

[/TD]

[TD]830

[/TD]

[TD]240

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Nucleonics Ltd.

[/TD]

[TD]FTmN 240

[/TD]

[TD]2.50m

[/TD]

[TD]240

[/TD]

[TD]9.62

[/TD]

[TD]2.64

[/TD]

[TD]840

[/TD]

[TD]240

[/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

The engines look extremely promising for re-useable space-based vehicles. However, nuclear fuel has its own hazards and risks, and legislation has been passed regulating their use, with the following two restrictions:

• No nuclear hybrid rocket may be fired while inside Kerbin's atmosphere or any other atmosphere in the solar system, with the exception of the gas giant Jool.
  
• No nuclear hyrbid rocket may be intentionally crashed or de-orbited into any celestial body with the exception of the Sun and the gas giant Jool.
  

This more or less restricts their use to craft intented to be permanent and space-based only. Which is fine, their performance is perfectly suited to exacty that.

Project Horus

A second manned project is being announced in parallel with Project Newet. Project Horus has the task of designing one vehicle, but perhaps the most challenging and complex vehicle to design. The goal is to design a Single Stage to Orbit (SSTO) spaceplane, to perform many different functions:

• Able to reach orbit as a single stage, achieve rendezvous and docking unassisted with the (future) Kerbin Space Station, and be able to de-orbit and land without refueling.
  
• If refueled at the orbital station, should be able to travel interplanetary distances under its own power. Should also be able to explore and possibly even land on Mun and Minmus.
  
• Should have electrically driven rover wheels to be able to act as a surface rover, and carry scientific equipment for exploration duties.
  
• Must carry a crew of 2.
  
• Able to act as an exploration and reconnaissance jet during atmospheric flight with a very long range: Should be able to, when fueled with liquid fuel only (no monopropellant and oxidizer onboard), circumnavigate Kerbin.
  
• Idealy should also have good glide characteristics.
  

The two projects will split up the kerbonauts. The engineering and geology team have been assigned to Project Newet, while the test pilot team has been assigned to Project Horus.

Stay tuned for more!

[astropapi1]

I love the way you write, I read through the entire four pages non-stop.

The way you integrate mods as building companies, the RP, the design/testing phase. I love it!

[Cashen]

I love the way you write, I read through the entire four pages non-stop.

The way you integrate mods as building companies, the RP, the design/testing phase. I love it!

Thanks, I appreciate that! Roleplay is kind of a fun thing for me, and I enjoy writing and playing KSP, so, might as well merge the two.

[Cashen]

Project Newet, Phase I: UKS Kerbin Station

Unlike Geb, Isis and Aten, Project Newet doesn't have mission numbers, but rather phases, which may constitute multiple launches or a single launch depending on the objective of that phase. As stated earlier, Phase 1 is the assembly of an orbital station. It's been given a simple name: UKS Kerbin Station.

The engineering team at MASEC spent quite a while coming up with the logistics of designing and building a space station. The eventual design they came up with was fairly small, but functional, modular, and meeting all of the stated goals. It would be composed of two primary parts: A habitation module that would also act as a kind of 'space port' with room for multiple craft to be docked simultaneously, and a refinery module where kethane would be unloaded and craft could refuel. The two sections would be connected by a structural truss on which the solar panels would be affixed.

Getting it into orbit would take five launches in all, each launch using a slightly different launch vehicle configuration. Some of the hardware would be leftover equipment from Project Aten, and some would be custom designed one-off launchers provided by NovaPunch. All of the launches would be unmanned, controlled from the ground.

Mission Outline & Objectives:

• Assemble the UKS Kerbin Station in a equatorial, circular, 125km orbit.
  

The habitation module after being constructed in the VAB. On paper it can hold 19 Kerbals but in practice will only hold around 8. Designed with four cupola modules for visibility (here shown with their impact shutters closed) and eight docking ports (two of which are reserved for other station modules).

The habitation module is launched first, using spare hardware from Project Aten: A L-I lower stage with an L-IVB upper stage.

This would be the last piece of KW Rocketry hardware used by MASEC, who have announced a long-term agreement with NovaPunch for future heavy lift vehicles, ending the "competition" between the two giants.

In reality, after installing the mods needed to make the station, I started having memory use issues and lots and lots of crashing, so a mod had to go. It was a hard decision since I love KW Rocketry, but NovaPunch is just as good, both mods provide similar parts, and KW is just a 400MB monster.

The habitation module it its proper orbit and orientation. The rocket stage remains attached for the time being.

From here on out it's all NovaPunch launchers. These are all custom one-off vehicles that don't have names. More standardized launchers will likely be developed in the future. The second module up is the structural truss member that will connect the two halves of the station together, as well as provide power.

The two modules meet in space, prior to docking. The rocket stages remain attached as the next module will include a large, empty propellant tank. The transfer stages will pump excess propellant into the storage tank and leave just enough to de-orbit themelves.

The primary refinery module, including two Kethane Dual Conversion Modules and a large-diameter spherical propellant tank, launched using another surplus L-I.

The refinery module attached. The other ascent stages have transferred surplus fuel to it and de-orbited themselves.

The Kethane Storage Module, which includes a large bank of batteries for power storage, lifts off, using a surplus L-II as a first stage.

The final launch, which is not shown, was a very small launch of an air-lock module using an old Latrans II style booster.

The station fully assembled and ready for occupancy.

Next: Phase Two, Commissioning the Station

[Cashen]

Project Newet, Phase II: The Aten Crew Operations Vehicle

The station is assembled. Now it's time to get a crew up there. Presently, a re-useable launch vehicle to get into orbit is still in the early design phase. What's ready to go right now though is the new Aten Crew Operations Vehicle, or Aten COV. Designed only for operations in space, this vessel in particular will be assigned to UKS Kerbin Station and be responsible for ferrying Kerbals around the planetary system to based not-yet-established on the moons.

The Aten COV in the Vehicle Assembly Building.

It uses the familiar Aten capsule, for a crew of three. Added to this is a larger monopropellant tank, and a new passenger module, called the Hitchhiker, which has room for four passengers. The same fuel tank used in the Aten CSM is present, but now we have the FTmN 90 Nuclear Hybrid Rocket as primary propulsion. Dubbed the COV-I, because it uses the smallest of NovaPunch's 2.50m diameter fuel tanks, larger versions meant for interplanetary travel and return will be named II and III and so on, ascending the 2.50m tank sizes, while maintaining the exact same layout otherwise.

NovaPunch is also providing the launch vehicle, dubbed the Aten Launch System, or ALS. A two stage launcher, using a solid lower stage and a liquid upper stage. This is the first time MASEC will be using solid rocket boosters.

Mission Outline & Objectives:

• First flight of the new Aten COV-I and the ALS rocket.
  
• Rendezvous and dock with UKS Kerbin Station, transfer crew.
  
• Crew: The engineering team (Mac, Dunlie, Milke)
  
• Passengers: The geology team (Kennie, Milgas, Wildon)
  

The ALS launching. A new naming convention has been adopted for boosters, since they are all designed by NovaPunch now. The lower stage is the SR250-II, referring to it as a Solid Rocket, on the 250cm diameter standard, and II refers to the fact that this is the larger of two SRBs (This one is five segments, the other 250cm one is three). Note the absence of a launch escape tower. MASEC is getting pretty confident in their designs!

The SRB separates and the upper stage, dubbed the LR250-IV, for being a liquid rocket (using a Bearcat engine) and the fourth fuel tank in ascending order (which happens to be the largest)

Careful flying on the part of the crew enabled the upper stage to provide all but 75m/s of orbital velocity. The nuclear rockets would provide the rest, well above the atmosphere.

A good look at the new Aten COV, with six Kerbals inside. It has a capacity of seven.

The station has been powered up in anticipation of their arrival.

Once docked, the six kerbonauts head inside and make themselves at home!

Mac:

Dunlie:

Milke:

Milgas:

Wildon:

Kennie:

Edited May 1, 2014 by Cashen

[Cashen]

Horus I

Designing and building an SSTO is a challenge. The crew in charge of it went through many, many design iterations. One of which is shown below:

An older SSTO design, made using in-house turbojet engines and a LV-T30 liquid fueled engine. The propellant tanks are surplus KW 1.25m tanks from Project Geb.

Bill Kerman takes the earlier design up to attempt orbit.

Note: For those that followed by much less well produced 0.20 mission logs thread here (old and dead, don't necro post) you might recognize those last two screenshots. They're from the SSTO I developed in that thread, not a new design.

The early prototype was purely a proof of concept, that SSTO was even possible. It turns out that yes, it can be done. The craft, dubbed the 'flying fox', could reach orbit, but there were problems, as Bill noted upon his return:

"Well, obviously, there's not enough fuel, or something's wrong with the fuel and power balance. It can reach orbit but there's no way it could rendezvous and dock with the station, or do anything. It had about 80m/s of delta-v left in that engine. Part of the problem is there's a mismatch between the jet thrust and the rocket thrust. Those two jet engines put out 450kN of thrust and that's great, it'll get you going 1300m/s at 22,000m up. Once the engine intake warning comes on and you punch on the rocket, you get a nice boost, maybe five seconds of all three engines going, but then when you shut down the jets, your speed falls off and you lose a good part of the energy the jets gave you. The problem is that single rocket engine only has 215kN of thrust, just under half that of the two jets. It can't maintain that speed through the atmosphere. You gotta get the jet and rocket thrust levels closer together."

Simply adding another LV-T30 would solve this problem but would add another 1,250kg of mass. And this design only holds one Kerbal, while the stated goal is two. So the engineers went back to the drawing board and made several adjustments:

• The in-house LV-T30 would be replaced by the AIES Constellation C6, which had stood out during initial testing before Geb for its outstanding thrust to weight ratio, packing 200kN of thrust in a 500kg package. Two of these would weigh just 1.0 tonnes and provide 400kN. This was chosen over the NovaPunch Aerospike engine, which, while having higher thrust and better ISP, was deemed 'overkill' for this project and would add even more weight. Besides, there were other advantages of having two rocket engines on the sides rather than one in the middle.
  
• With two rocket engines instead of one, the back of the core fuel tank is now unoccupied. The engineers decided to put a regular docking port on the back end and eliminate the heavier, in-line docking port. Having the docking port in line with the craft's axis would simplify docking operations.
  
• The turbojets would be switched to B9 Aerospace, instead of in-house. They provide the same thrust, but much better efficency, with a slight penalty in added weight.
  
• KW Rocketry is no longer building components for MASEC, so new propellant tanks would need to be provided. The core tank would be NovaPunch's largest 1.25m tank. The standard unit of measure for a tank is the volume of liquid fuel, in liters, per tonne of total tank mass (the oxidizer being in a fixed ratio with fuel means you can ignore it for these purposes, though you could establish a similar ratio if you wanted). Almost all tanks will hold 79 to 81L of liquid fuel per tonne of mass, but the larger 1.25m NovaPunch tank holds 84L per tonne, a slight weight savings. AIES makes a larger 1.25m tank with higher capacity, but that was deemed unnecessary. AIES would however provide the side-mounted tanks.
  
• The KW Rocketry mono-propellant tank holds 100L. Most docking operations use just a fraction of that, and since this thing only needs to dock once or twice, a smaller volume can be carried, saving weight.
  
• Adding another set of engines along the sides makes the plane wider, which gives an opportunity to add larger wings, improving lift and glide characteristics.
  

The final result is this:

• Rocket Propulsion: 2x AIES Constellation C6 liquid bipropellant rockets, 400 kN total thrust, 370/320 ISP
  
• Jet Propulsion: 2x B9 D-30F7 turbojet engines, 450 kN total thrust, 2031/1800 ISP
  
• Propellants: 4x AIES MER-1 fuel tanks + 1 NovaPunch HH-125-C Fuel tank, 963L liquid fuel, 1144L oxidizer
  
• RCS System: 8x RCS blocks + 1 B9 MT1 RCS tank, 40L mono-propellant
  
• Fully loaded mass: 18,920kg
  
• Liquid fuel only mass: 13,040kg
  
• Dry mass: 8,360kg
  

This new design also holds all the necessary scientific equipment plus a full set of rover wheels that will engage when the sturdier, but unpowered landing gear retract.This, the engineers were convinced, would work. So Bill set out to prove them right.

Mission Outline & Objectives

• First flight of the Horus SSTO Spaceplane
  
• Achieve equatorial orbit
  
• Rendezvous and dock with the UKS Kerbin station but do not take on fuel
  
• De-orbit, dump remaining oxidizer and mono-propellant
  
• Perform an unpowered landing on the KSC runway to test gliding characteristics in an 'out of fuel' scenario
  
• Pilot: Bill Kerman
  

Bill takes off from the KSC runway under jet power. "Lift characteristics look good. I had the stick back and it pitched up almost right away. Wheels off the ground at just 65m/s. Continuing nose-up 45 degrees until 15km"

"Getting shock heating effects now. Altitude 22km, speed 1.3km per second."

"Rockets on. All four engines firing, nose up. The added speed is giving me more air for the jets."

"KSC, I can report that I have 1,250m/s of delta-v remaining on the coast to apoapsis. Circularization burn will take around 370. That should be plenty."

It's pretty to look at, I think.

Bill: Kerbin Station, I have you in sight, 13km away. Orienting to kill relative velocity when I get there.

Mac: Roger Bill, we can see you. Looks like one fine flying machine you've got there. Everything here is ready for your arrival.

"That docking port next to Aten looks like a tight fit, going to translate to the other side of the airlock and dock there. A little strange docking backwards, I have to use the docking camera only, no out-the-window visual" From here you can see the fuel pipe arrangements. They are designed so that the both the jets and rockets have unrestricted access to all fuel tanks and it will always be balanced. No need to fiddle with transfers.

Bill: Docked successfully. Just to clarify I will not be taking on any additional fuel.

Mac: Understood.

After a brief stay, Bill undocked and prepared to de-orbit.

"Re-entry looks good. Leftover monoprop and oxidizer dumped overboard. Will engages the jets shortly. Probably came in too early but I have lots of fuel to fly back with."

"Cut the jets as I was crossing the mountains, still coming in too hot. Pitching the nose way down to lose altitude. Seems to glide pretty well when this light." Bill only has 50L of fuel left in the tank, so this simulates a glide landing if the craft were to run out of fuel. An upcoming test flight will attempt a circumnagivation of Kerbin so this is an important detail to consider.

"Glide characteristics are amazing. This has to be the easiest landing I've ever done. Nice 'n slow..."

"Touchdown! This baby can really fly. I'm impressed."

Bill Kerman:

Some quick props to Brotoro who's BirdDog plane/rover from his Long Term Laythe thread is what originally gave me the idea to slap rover wheels on a plane.

Edited May 1, 2014 by Cashen

[astropapi1]

Can't handle ur writin' skillz, brah.

Seriously, awesome work. Keep it up!

[Geschosskopf]

Bravo on the SSTO! I don't have much luck with them

[Cashen]

Bravo on the SSTO! I don't have much luck with them

They are definitely tricky, and it was only with hours and hours of experimentation in 0.20 that I was able to get the basics of proper SSTO design plus the proper ascent profile to get them into orbit. Lots of trial and error. Probably the most challenging thing I've done in KSP so far. This design is really good though, far surpasses anything I'd built before. I still don't know how people can make SSTOs that can get to Mun or interplanetary space without refueling. Voodoo magic I say. Rockets are braindead simple by comparison.

Edited August 11, 2013 by Cashen

[Cashen]

Haven't updated this thread in a couple days as I've been doing lots of R&D for future missions. I just completed the next phase of Project Newet and holy mother of God was it long and frustrating. The job got done but man I learned some lessons. I'll post the log tomorrow with like a billion pictures or something.

[astropapi1]

Haven't updated this thread in a couple days as I've been doing lots of R&D for future missions. I just completed the next phase of Project Newet and holy mother of God was it long and frustrating. The job got done but man I learned some lessons. I'll post the log tomorrow with like a billion pictures or something.

Yay!

*Throws popcorn at microwave.

[Cashen]

Project Newet, Phase III: UKS Minmus Station

Transfer windows to both Jool and Duna will open shortly. First Jool and then some time later, Duna. The Project Isis team is pushing to send probe missions to both planetary systems and would like Kerbin Station's kethane refinery to be operational to fuel the interplanetary transfer stages of the probe missions. In order to do this, kethane needs to start flowing from Minmus. Given the time pressure to complete this phase right away, all available resources are being put to the service of building and commissioning UKS Minmus Station. For this task, MASEC has considered two options.

The station will be a copy of Kerbin Station, with five modules assembled together. The first option is to send each module to Minmus separately and have them assemble the station in place. This would require bigger launch vehicles and trying to manage their transfers simultaneously. The second option is to assemble, or partly assemble, the station in Kerbin orbit and use a heavy tug to push it to Minmus in one go. MASEC would like to simplify the eventual interplanetary colonization missions by using this option, rather than trying to send a dozen or more different vehicles to a planet all at once, and so Minmus will serve as a test of this method of station construction.

In order to push a whole space station all the way to Minmus, a powerful space tug is required. Enter the Hercules Heavy Nuclear Tug:

The Hercules HNT preparing for launch.

The tug would be the first piece launched. To save fuel and avoid an even larger ascent stage, the tug's fuel tanks are all empty except for one of the small central ones. It will dock with UKS Kerbin Station and take on the excess fuel the station has in its large spherical tank left over from station assembly, and use that for this mission.

Mission Outline & Objectives:

• First flight of the Hercules Heavy Nuclear Tug
  
• Pre-assemble UKS Minmus station in a transport configuration in low Kerbin orbit.
  
• Use the Hercules to transfer the assembled station in one piece to a Minmus orbit of 20km.
  
• The tug will then properly assemble the station into its final configuration before returning to Kerbin.
  

The tug lifts off from KSC, the first piece of equipment to be launched. It will dock at Kerbin Station and wait for Minmus Station to be assembled.

The tug is equipped with 4xFTmN 90 Nuclear Hybrid Rockets for a total thrust of 360kN and an ISP of 830s, which means it has an insanely high delta-v when fully fueled.

Docked. Now to begin station assembly.

Mission planners are rushing. Here is Minmus Station's habitat module, which will be sent next. It's identical to the Kerbin Station habitat module, but the launcher is different since it no longer features KW Rocketry parts.

Soon into the launch of the habitat module, at first stage engine cutoff, disaster strikes.

The payload disintegrates early in the ascent. The project comes to a complete halt pending an investigation.

Investigation would reveal the launch failure was a product of the effort to get the next phase of the project completed as soon as possible, with the pending transfer windows approaching. Immediately the missions to Jool were cancelled, and will have to wait for the next transfer window. The mission to Duna, being further out, is still a 'maybe'. As far as what caused the failure, it was two-fold. Firstly, the payload had not been as properly secured to the ascent stage as Kerbin Station's habitat module had been. Secondly, a mistake was made in the stage timing, particularly a longer than usual gap between first stage cutoff and second stage ignition. Typically the second stage fires instantly after first stage cutoff to provide a smooth ascent. In this case, there was a delay in the staging. The sudden jolt as acceleration fell to zero after the five Bearcat engines of the first stage shut down broke the payload loose from the ascent vehicle. The payload turned broadside and was quickly torn to pieces by aerodynamic forces. The guidance systems destroyed, the signal to fire the second stage engines never happened, and though the launch vehicle was undamaged (as can be seen in the picture), it, along with the wreckage, continued upward on a ballistic trajectory before falling into the ocean.

A costly failure. Space station habitat modules are not cheap. But MASEC would have to learn some lessons the hard way, and press on.

The issues that caused the failure of the original Minmus Station habitat launch were sorted out, and another module was fabricated, shown here passing safely through staging.

The station reaches orbit at 100km and orients itself properly for subsequent modules to attach.

The air-lock module is fired next, immediately after the habitat module.

Launching so soon after the first module proved to be a mistake as while it entered into a lower orbit to catch up, it was too far behind and would take several orbits to do so.

With the next module ready to go, and not wanting to wait, they decide to let the airlock module drift and catch up and launch the structural truss piece

The truss piece meets up with the habitat module in space.

The air-lock module arrives soon after. The air lock hatchway itself is covered with a decoupler with a docking port attached. This will allow more modules to be temporarily affixed to it during transportation, and then be removed later to allow the air-lock to be used.

Next is the actual refinery module with the empty propellant tank and kethane converters.

The upper stages have all funneled their fuel into that one lone stage that is still attached. Once the refinery module is docked, they all transfer their spare fuel to the big spherical tank and then de-orbit themselves.

Lastly, the Kethane storage tank and battery pack.

The last module's ascent stage backs away after transferring its spare fuel. Here the station is in its Transportation configuration, which is meant to keep its weight balanced along a single axis. There is a significant difference between the mass of the kethane and fuel modules, due to the converters, and if they were in their usual configuration, the station would not be balanced for moving around. It will be properly assembled in-situ.

With the station ready, the tug takes on all of the spare fuel from Kerbin station, undocks, and transfers down.

The first test of the transfer stack would be an inclination burn to get into Minmus' orbital place while still in Kerbin orbit. The station was initially assembled in an equatorial orbit because it would be faster, rather than waiting for Minmus' plane to align for each launch. The tug has spare delta-v anyway, and the engineers wanted to see if the stack would hold together under full thrust. The inclination change occurred at night and is not shown, but the stack performed fine, though it orients itself very, very, very slowly. Upwards of five minutes is required to properly face a maneuver node. The engines are also under-powered for such a heavy load, as the inclination burn took three minutes.

The Minmus transfer burn took twelve full minutes to complete, and the stack's stability was questionable, as it seemed to want to wander and never settled on the node quite properly. For an interplanetary transfer, multiple burns could be performed on different orbits without much issue for phase angles. Moon transfers have to be done all at once to get a proper encounter. Already mission planners are questioning the tug design. Perhaps the larger FTmN 240 would have been a better choice. The vehicle still has over 8km/s of delta-v while pushing the entire station around, so a slight dV penalty for the much larger engines may be worth it.

Three correction burns are needed to get a proper encounter, but Minmus is reached. Initially an elliptical capture orbit was established at 6km by 900km, and burns were then done to zero the inclination and circularize at 20km, the desired orbital altitude. Stack stability is extremely poor and burns are very difficult, time consuming and frustrating. Even determining the orbit is difficult as the wobble bounces the projected orbit around, making maneuver planning very difficult. Already some are beginning to question if it would have been easier to send the modules separately.

The proper orbit is achieved eventually and the Tug undocks. Three things have to happen. The kethane module, and the fuel module, need to be placed on the large docking ports at the base of the structural truss, and the docking port/decoupler on the air-lock needs to be removed.

The kethane and fuel modules are undocked together and brought over. They will be separated and docked separately. The other option would be to pull them off the stack one at a time, but this would require more moving around.

Immedeately after separating the two halves of what will make up the refinery, there are problems. When the tug docked with the kethane module, the shape, mass and orientation of the module and the tug made moving around almost impossible. The docking node wanted to flex and when engaging attitude control to hold alignment for docking, it would tend to wobble around uncontrolably. It was only through careful, slow, and time-consuming movements that it was properly docked to the station. In that time, however, the fuel module drifted away nearly 1000m from the station. The tug had transferred its liquid fuel to the spherical tank to save weight for docking and moving around with RCS, and so would have to now go and get the fuel module using RCS only.

The tug catches up to the fuel module which has drifted into a lower (and hence faster) orbit and is already ahead of the station, which can be seen in the background. By now, monopropellant levels are becoming an issue and a direct transfer backwards is impossible. Mission Control makes the decision to boost into a higher orbit and then perform a transfer back down, costing time and liquid fuel but saving monopropellant.

The fuel module suffers from the same stability issues. Finally someone at mission control decides to try using the tug's detachable nose-cone. Seen here on the right, the nose of the tug, including the medium sized docking port, can be taken off to reveal a large docking port, which the tug then uses to grab the other side of the fuel module. This completely solves the stability issues, but will make re-docking more complex, since this large docking port is what needs to attach to the station.

After finding the station again, the tug aligns as best as possible the module, before it undocks and moves around to the other side to re-dock with its own nosecone, and completes, very carefully, the final docking. After the final docking, only about 30L of monopropellant is left, of the 600L (about half of which was in the station) that was brought along. Moving a heavy-duty tug around with RCS is much more costly than small spacecraft.

The station is assembled. After briefly considering leaving now and letting a future mission take care of uncovering the air-lock hatch, Mission Control decides to expend the remaining RCS fuel and remove it now.

Now we're really finished, and burning to come home. Finally.

The tug aerobrakes over KSC at a periapsis of 34km. The bulkhead from the air-lock was brought along, but was detached before entering the atmosphere. It aerobraked with the tug, but while the tug then boosted its periapsis to 150km and remained in an elliptical 500x150km parking orbit, the hatch cover continued around one orbit, re-entered the atmosphere again and was destroyed. Mission complete.

Lessons Learned:

1. The tug is not powerful enough. Long interplanetary burns would take as long as half an hour. Even if spaced out across several orbits, this is nearly impractical. The stack held up well under thrust, so additional thrust from FTmN 240s would probably be acceptable. A new tug with 2 or 3 of the larger engines would be preferable to one with four of the medium ones.
   
2. The stack is extremely unstable when trying to change attitude. Transporting an entire station in one go may be impossible. Rather than the all-or-nothing of the two options laid out, perhaps sending a station as two large pieces instead of one massive one, or many small pieces, would be preferable.
   
3. The tug needs to carry more monopropellant in addition to larger, heavier engines. It certainly has delta-v to spare, even under load.
   
4. When moving station parts around, never leave a part unattended. Only detach and reposition one piece at a time rather than multiple pieces, because even if they appear stationary at the time, they will drift, especially of the operation they are waiting on takes longer.
   
5. The medium sized docking ports are very unstable for certain loads, but the larger ones are quite stable. Whoever thought of having a detachable nosecone revealing a large docking port was a genius. A new tug design should incorporate this, perhaps even two of them, one at each end.
   
6. The docking ports mounted on the radial tanks are useless. Only two docking locations, front and back, were actually used. In the future only these two docking locations will be used.
   
7. The station's large spherical tank modules should have large docking ports at BOTH ends, instead of only at one. The chances of a ship needing to dock there are low, and the tug would benefit from being able to dock the part while still attached to a large docking port itself. Future stations could be transferred as two pieces using two tugs: One pushing a pre-assembled habitat/structural/air-lock module using regular docking ports, and another tug with its large docking ports uncovered and transporting the fuel and kethane modules separately from the first.
   

[Cashen]

Project Newet, Phase IV: Commissioning UKS Minmus Station

In preparation for the next phase, which will deliver the vehicles and crew to commission UKS Minmus Station, MASEC has had a large group of Kerbals coming out of Kerbonaut training, and declared them full members of the organization. In all, nine new Kerbals are joining the ranks, including:

Six new Engineers: Desbree, Elmon, Bartvin, Kirmin, Richbur, and Neweny

One new Geologist: Jonbart

Two general purpose Scientists: Luski and Ludbrett

This brings the total MASEC staff up to eighteen. With the three test pilots assigned to Project Horus, the remaining fifteen have been split into two groups, staffing the two orbital stations. The station staffing will look like this (note, veterans of Project Aten are in bold)

[TABLE=class: grid, width: 30%, align: left]

[TR]

[TD]Position

[/TD]

[TD]UKS Kerbin Station

[/TD]

[TD]UKS Minmus Station

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Director of Operations

[/TD]

[TD]Mac Kerman

[/TD]

[TD]Milke Kerman

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Chief Scientist

[/TD]

[TD]Kennie Kerman

[/TD]

[TD]Milgas Kerman

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Geologist

[/TD]

[TD]Jonbart Kerman

[/TD]

[TD]Wildon Kerman

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Scientist

[/TD]

[TD]Ludbrett Kerman

[/TD]

[TD]Luski Kerman

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Chief Engineer

[/TD]

[TD]Dunlie Kerman

[/TD]

[TD]Desbree Kerman

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Engineer

[/TD]

[TD]Kirmin Kerman

[/TD]

[TD]Elmon Kerman

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Engineer

[/TD]

[TD]Richbur Kerman

[/TD]

[TD]Bartvin Kerman

[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR]

[TD]Engineer

[/TD]

[TD]Neweny Kerman

[/TD]

[TD][/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

Ideal station staff is seven, as that's the maximum capacity of an Aten COV (which is an emergency escape vehicle). UKS Kerbin Station will have eight temporarily, as eventually in the future a station will be placed at Mun as well (Rumour is that Dunlie will be given the Director of Operations job and Kennie the Chief Scientist job at the future Mun Station)

In all, Phase 4 of project Newet will see three launches, two of which will be of brand new vehicles: The Amphion KERV (Kethane Extraction and Recovery Vehicle) is the mobile drilling platform that will deploy from Minmus Station and extract kethane from the moon. The Zethus KTV (Kethane Transportation Vehicle) will be the vehicle that delivers Kethane to Kerbin Station (and eventually a future Mun Station) for processing. In addition, another Aten COV will be launched for use at Minmus, as each station must have one as an emergency escape/rescue/refueling vehicle, as well as for general crew transport from station to station.

Since Amphion is by far the more complex and expensive vehicle, it launches first, and its launch is unmanned.

Mission Outline & Objectives:

• First flight of the Amphion Kethane Extraction and Recovery Vehicle
  
• Launch unmanned and rendezvous and dock with UKS Kerbin Station, pick up Milke and Milgas Kerman
  
• Transfer to UKS Minmus Station, rendezvous and dock
  

The completed Amphion KERV.

• Kethane Capacity: 96,000L
  
• Kethane Drills: 2x heavy drilling units
  
• Propellant Capacity: 1,937L Fuel, 2,367L Oxidizer, 375L Mono-propellant
  
• Power Systems: 6x Gigantor XL Solar Arrays + 2x2.50m battery packs
  
• Propulsion: FTmN 240 Nuclear Hybrid Rocket, 240kN thrust, 840s vacuum ISP
  
• Empty mass: 49,300kg
  
• Fuel full, Kethane empty mass: 72,320kg
  
• Fully loaded mass: 264,320kg
  
• Percent fully loaded mass kethane: 72.4%
  
• Fully loaded deltaV: 700m/s
  
• Kethane empty deltaV: 2910m/s
  
• Fully loaded Minmus TWR: 1.15
  

Amphion sits on the launch pad with a large ascent vehicle beneath it. It would be launched with all of its own tanks empty to save weight on launch.

Launching unmanned as a test, MASEC does not want to risk Kerbals in the first launch of this vehicle.

The upper stage would get to Apoapsis, then transfer its remaining fuel to the KERV before decoupling, and the KERV would circularize the orbit on its own. The launch was designed to provide Amphion enough fuel to get to Minmus. It would have to refuel once there.

Launch goes well and Amphion docks with Kerbin Station. Milke and Milgas board.

The two of them then make the burn for Minmus.

While Amphion is on its coast to Minmus, the next vehicle prepares to launch directly to Minmus without stopping at Kerbin Station. This will be a manned launch since this vehicle is deemed far simpler.

Mission Outline & Objectives:

• First flight of the Zethus Kethane Transportation Vehicle
  
• Launch directly into Minmus' orbital plane, transfer, and dock with UKS Minmus Station
  
• Pilot: Desbree Kerman
  
• Passenger: Elmon Kerman
  

Zethus on the pad. It carries a big spherical kethane tank, which holds 96,000L of kethane, MASEC's chosen standard batch size. It's also powered by a FTmN 240, but lacks the extra weight of drills, landing legs, big solar panels and large battery packs. Its crew capsule, designed by B9 Aerospace (the first crew capsule not designed internally by MASEC) is also designed with frequent docking in mind.

Desbree was a stand-out during training, which is why he's been given the Chief Engineer position at Minmus Station, and why he's flying this first launch, which took place at night to align with the plane of Minmus.

Just like Amphion, Zethus launches empty on fuel, but the upper stage carries extra, enough to pump over and give them the fuel to get to Minmus with.

It's not exactly the most attractive piece of equipment but its practical.

With the two kethane ships on their way, its time for another Aten COV to launch carrying the rest of the new group of kerbonauts:

Mission Outline & Objectives:

• Launch an Aten COV-I bound for Minmus Station
  
• Passengers & Crew: Bartvin, Luski, Kirmin, Richbur, Neweny, Jonbart, Ludbrett
  
• Dock at UKS Kerbin Station, drop off Kirmin, Richbur, Neweny, Jonbart & Judbrett, pick up Wildon
  
• Transfer to Minmus Station and unload the remaining passengers
  

The second launch of an Aten COV-I, atop the ALS rocket. This one carries the full capacity of seven Kerbals.

Docked at UKS Kerbin Station, opposite the other Aten. Crew transfer takes place. Of the seven on-board, five get off at Kerbin Station, and Wildon gets on. He, plus the other two who stayed on the Aten, will now head to Minmus Station.

Making the burn for Minmus. This makes three vehicles headed to Minmus simultaneously, staggered by a couple of hours each.

The trajectories of the three craft. Note the ATEN is still close to Kerbin at this time and hard to see.

Amphion arrives first and circularizes in an orbit at 40km, 20km above the station. They correct orbital planes and wait for the next transfer window down. Unfortunately they arrived at a bad time and would have to wait four hours for said window.

Zethus arrives next and circularizes at a higher orbit, around 60km. Quickly it becomes apparent that orbital rendezvous when approaching Minmus should be done from a higher altitude, since Minmus' small gravity means that there's little difference in velocity between orbits, unlike Kerbin.

Aten applies this lesson and enters an orbit much higher; a few hundred kilometers up. All three vessels are now in orbit at the same time.

Zethus gets the first transfer window and makes the rendezvous, preparing to dock with the refinery section.

Desbree's view out the front window. Excellent visibility. "I almost don't even need the docking camera for this."

Docked. From here, he and Elmon EVA up to the station and enter through the air-lock.

Milke and Milgas arrive next and aim for the docking port directly across from Zethus.

They get docked and EVA up as well, and make preparations to bring the station fully online.

Aten docks last and unloads the rest of the crew, who by now have opened the blast shutters on the cupola modules and turned the lights on. UKS Minmus Station is open for business.

The next order of business: Going down and getting the first batch of kethane for transport back to Kerbin.

Milke Kerman:

Desbree Kerman:

Bartvin Kerman:

Richbur Kerman:

Wildon Kerman:

Milgas Kerman:

Luski Kerman:

Kennie Kerman:

Elmon Kerman:

Kirmin Kerman:

Neweny Kerman:

Jonbart Kerman:

Ludbrett Kerman:

Edited May 1, 2014 by Cashen

[Cashen]

Horus II

Project Horus hasn't been forgotten, it's just much smaller and far less funded than Project Newet. The machine they're testing is, however, arguably more intersting. In any case, the next flight will be an in-atmosphere endurance test of the Horus SSTO Spaceplane. It will be flying as a jet, with its oxidizer and mono-propellant tanks empty to conserve weight.

Mission Outline & Objectives

• Fly to the north pole, plant a flag.
  
• Return to KSC
  
• Pilot: Bob Kerman
  

Bob climbs inside the Horus SSTO. No design changes since the last mission, but to save weight the oxidizer and RCS tanks are empty, since this mission is entirely within the atmosphere.

Bob takes off and immediately begins turning to head north.

Pitching up to 45 degrees to gain altitude, most of the flight will be at max altitude and speed.

Shock heating effects. 22km up, 1.3km/s

Bob flies over a particularly large mountain range along the way.

The northern icefields, Bob prepares to make his descent.

Engines are cut and the plane glides in for a landing. Even with three quarters of its liquid fuel tank full, it glides fairly well.

Landed about 85 degrees north latitude. Bob would test the rover wheels first, which were able to get to about 26m/s when all four were being used. Front wheels only could get to around 16m/s. They work fairly well, but the plane really flexes when heavy like this. The rest of the journey would be done over land, but with the jet engines at low throttle pushing the plane while on its sturdier landing gear.

"KSC, I have reached the north pole and the flag is planted. Interesting climate up here. The sun never moves up and down at all." Kerbin has no axial tilt and so the sun never rises or sets, but traces out a circle along the horizon.

Taking off again. The trip back will be harder as there is no direct line of longitude to follow like on the way up. Bob will have to plot a course.

"Damn, I overshot KSC. The thing really can't turn or move around at high speed and altitude. I should have dropped into the lower atmosphere before trying to line up." Something to remember in the future.

After correcting, Bob passes over the island airfield.

"Okay, I can see KSC up ahead. Getting ready to cut the engines and glide home."

"Almost there...."

Mission accomplished!

The plane used almost 2/3rds of its fuel. A circumnavigation will be really really tight on fuel. Obviously with course corrections and using the jets to push along the ground, this mission, which on paper should only use 50% of the fuel, wasn't the most efficient.

Bob Kerman:

Edited May 1, 2014 by Cashen