The KATO Space Race [Pic-Hvy] - (ended, see reboot thread RftS:ERA)

[NathanKell]

Yup.

Still buggy, but yup!

[p3asant]

Yup.

Still buggy, but yup!

Damn!

Love your mods, especially stretchable srb's and now this!

Edited October 24, 2013 by p3asant

[Pipcard]

What? Kerbin's the size of Earth now?

[NathanKell]

Yup. Stable enough for an alpha release in the Addon Releases/Showcase forum. Check sig for link.

[asmi]

You've gotta repeat this for real size Kerbin AND make a movie out of it - looks like a great script writer is dying in you. I'd watch it for sure, heck I'd even buy it on BluRay - it would surely be ages ahead of all the crap-SciFi movies we're getting these days...

[AbeS]

I agree with asmi! keep this up! it's awesome!

[NathanKell]

That's very kind of you both!

I don't know the first thing about movie-making, I'm afraid, but I'll see what I can do when I get a chance. Not sure how to do it though--the way it's set up now, it survives based on extravagant (overblow?) text backgrounds, and, what, would I read them aloud in the movie?

Or, if anyone else is interested in recording the flights, I'd be happy to upload the crafts and the mission plans!

Also, now that we have Earth-size stuff I'm going to drop any pretense that these are Kerbals. Besides, the K on my keyboard was wearing out and I kept typing the real names anyway and had to find-replace.

An update: I'm still hard at work at modding at the moment so...ahh, the heck with it. I need a break. Expect Argo-Granite 4, carrying Alva Temple, first American in Space, coming soon.

Edited November 1, 2013 by NathanKell

[NathanKell]

Project Aquarius Part 2

America’s First Astronaut

The First Astronauts: The Aquarius Eight

The selection process for the first class of American astronauts had begun soon after the star of Project Aquarius. Selection and training was expected to take nearly as long as the hardware design and testing, and indeed it did. NSA, an outgrowth of the earlier National Aeronautics Agency, was used to working with test pilots, and it seemed that was a reasonable place to start. After all, Aquarius would involve flying higher and faster than ever before, even if it did not involve wings or lift. Test pilots, it was hoped, could adapt readily to yet another new craft with new instrumentation, could keep their cool despite unpredictable and dangerous conditions, and had existing relationships with NSA and with the contractors involved.

While NSA had received bids from every major aerospace contractor (and many looking to get into the new field), it went with Grumman for the final selection, perhaps influenced by the heavy Navy involvement in Project Aquarius and Grumman’s Navy reputation for building nigh-indestructible aircraft. This influenced pilot selection, and along with the fact that the Air Force was continuing with its own manned high altitude program (space in all but name), meant that the pool of available military test pilots would be Navy and Marine Corps. The final cut demonstrated this: to a curious and soon-adoring public, NSA unveiled the Aquarius Eight.

The Aquarius Eight were feted as the finest young people America had to offer. Five were active-duty USN or USMC aviators; two were civilian test pilots. They were on average in their early thirties; they were all highly educated, with masters and PhDs and genius-level IQ; they were all exuberantly enthusiastic about Aquarius and space in general.

Corwin H. “Corky†Meyer was a natural pick. A graduate of MIT and Grumman’s chief test pilot for its “Cat†line of Navy fighters, he had been intimately involved in the design of Grumman’s Aquarius submission, and knew how the capsule was supposed to fly better than any man alive. Besides being chosen as an astronaut himself, he would help train the others. He was one of two civilians picked for the First Eight (Schwartz was retired Air Force, but still with active ties).

Captain Alva Temple, USN, was the “Old Man†of the Aquarius Eight. A few years older than his compatriots, Temple had begun his flying career in the first integrated squadron in the Navy (VF-12, founded the year he was born), and rose to command it and lead it to distinction in the Second World War, the first African-American to lead a Navy squadron. After the war he served as an instructor and new technology evaluator at China Lake. Though his love of flying was as great as any in the Eight, he was renowned for how reliable and unexcitable he was when in the cockpit.

Commander Albert Scott Crossfield, USN, also served during the Second World War, and after the war earned his master’s in aeronautical engineering; already having served as a flight instructor, this was a perfect combination and the then-NAA snapped him up. On secondment from the Navy, he was first to fly the X-4 (America’s own rocketplane, the Douglas Skyrocket) and the first American to break Mach 2. He was a natural fit for Aquarius.

Lt. Coleman Alexander Young, USN, was a fiery naval aviator from the infamous VF-32 Redtails. The Redtails were a collection of radicals and misfits, home to various International Brigaders who had fought integralism in Spain before returning home to fight it on the world stage when the US entered the war (and who painted their aircrafts’ tails red in solidarity). Despite its reputation, VF-32 had one of the best records of a fighter squadron in the Second World War, and Young, the best pilot ever to serve with them, was the Navy’s first African-American double ace of the Second World War (counting his victories over Spain). Despite misgivings over his being something of a loose cannon, Young’s star power (and record of brilliance in the air) meant NSA sent him the invitation. To their surprise, he passed all tests with flying colors.

Major John Herschel Glenn, USMC, had flown with VMF-155 in the War, then as an exchange pilot with the 4th Fighter Wing, USAF, flying early jets. After the war he served at NAS Patuxent River where he was appointed to Test Pilot School, and following graduation tested early Navy and USMC jets. While there he completed the first transcontinental supersonic flight in an XF3H Demon. Herschel had the least experience in Grumman aircraft among the Navy and USMC aviators, but made up for it with his solid record and picture-perfect image. He, like Temple, proved a balance to the hard-edged Young and flamboyant Schirra.

George Lewis Schwartz was North American’s chief test pilot before NSA snatched him up, the first USAF ace of the Second World War, and the unofficial Air Force presence in Project Aquarius. While at North American he had flown the first swept-wing fighter in the world. He was the first American to break the sound barrier, and the first in the world to do so in a production aircraft. With an existing relationship with NSA he was already on the radar screen for Project Aquarius.

Commander Walter Marty “Wally†Schirra, USN, was the youngest astronaut selected. Too young to serve in combat in the Second World War, he ended the war a junior officer on a cruiser. Trained as a pilot after the war, he was of the new breed of “jet jocks.†He served in the first active jet squadron in the Navy, but it wasn’t long before BuAer recognized his potential and had him sent to Test Pilot School at Pax River. Testing air-launched missiles at China Lake familiarized him with rocketry, and NSA invited him for interviews and tests early in Project Aquarius. Known as Aquarius’s prankster, Schirra quickly hit it off with Young and soon the two were inseparable.

Nancy Harkness Love was a test pilot of long standing with the National Aeronautics Agency. A graduate of MIT and far and away the best pilot NAA had, its flying expert on jets, she flew every jet aircraft evaluated by NAA and helped train the Air Force and Navy/USMC aviators learning jet flight as production jets became available late in the war. She also regularly challenged those pilots to mock dogfights, and despite never being allowed in combat herself consistently outflew combat veterans. While NSA originally had intended to select only military test pilots, political and internal agency pressure lead to the testing of some women as well, many of whom proved more physically capable in high-G situations than the men. Love in particular was well known to Scott Crossfield, George Schwartz, Wally Schirra, and Corky Meyer, each of whom she had soundly beat in mock dogfights, and all of whom expressed a desire to see her in the program; Meyer in particular argued that if an exception had been made for him, one ought to be made for his classmate as well. Nonetheless she, and all the women, suffered fierce resistance from a still very-sexist NSA and aerospace community in general, and many expected that she would never actually fly Aquarius, instead serving as backup.

Aquarius-Granite 4: Friendship 8

Mission:

Friendship 8 (Aquarius-Granite 4)

Program:

Aquarius Program

Mission Control:

National Space Agency

Crew:

Alva Temple

Launch Vehicle:

Granite ALV

Launch Site:

Canaveral Space Center LC-8A, Florida, USA

Objective:

First American in space

Description:

Launch Aquarius capsule on a suborbital flight and recover at sea.

Intended Orbit:

Suborbital (150km apogee, splashdown 500km downrange)

Outcome:

Success

Details: LV used is the Granite Aquarius Launch Vehicle, a derivative of the SSM-4 Granite missile. Granite ALV features radio-command guidance, Automatic Abort Sensing System, improved engine, and Aquarius Spacecraft Adapter. Flight path is suborbital arc, apogee 150km. Capsule will jettison LES after MECO, then test OMS to raise apogee to 150km. At apogee capsule will reorient for retrofire and OMS will initiate 100m/s retro burn. Peak reentry G will be approximately 11. At 7.5km drogue will deploy, followed by main chute deployment, reefed, at 1km and main deployment at 500m. Capsule will splash down in Atlantic to be picked up by USS Sumner, DD-692.

Background: With successful tests of the capsule during launch aborts and reentry in the Aquarius-Little Koe program, and the reliability of the Granite not in doubt after years of service, Project Aquarius inched closer towards the goal of spaceflight. Mating of the capsule to the Granite booster proved uncomplicated; the slight overhang of the capsule did not provide much in the way of aerodynamic problems, and the takeoff thrust-to-weight ratio remained an acceptable 1.13. After a suborbital test with Beef the chimpanzee, NSA program administrators gave the go-ahead for the first crewed launch of the Aquarius program.

Up until the day before the flight, no one in the press knew who would be the first American in space. Within the Aquarius program, however, the choice was clear: Alva Temple. The son of farmers in rural Alabama, Temple's career was perfectly representative of the New America shaped by La Follete and Roosevelt. Fascinated by a barnstormer he saw as a child, but too poor to learn how to fly himself, he showed promise at school and was secured an appointment at the Naval Academy by his Congressman, the military being the only way, he felt, he could learn to fly. Once there he continued to excel, and was commissioned an Ensign in 1933. He rose quickly, despite some lingering prejudice twenty years after integration, and after tours in VS-6 and VC-4 was reassigned to VF-12 as commanding officer upon his promotion to Commander. He led VF-12 with distinction through the early years of the Second World War, receiving both the Navy Cross and the Silver Star. After a tour stateside he returned to action commanding Carrier Air Group 4 aboard USS Petersburg CV-20. When the war ended he was stationed at NAWS China Lake (where he would later meet Wally Schirra) to help conduct trials of guided missiles, since CAG-4 had tested the first few examples in combat towards the end of the war.

Despite being a brilliant pilot, Temple, unlike many of his contemporaries, was not flashy or brash; rather, he was steady and dependable in flight and on the ground, and soon came to be known as the "Old Man" of the Aquarius Eight. His peers unanimously selected him as who they thought should take the first flight, as did the more formal evaluations by Aquarius project leads. To symbolize their camaraderie, and as a symbol for friendship of all peoples, he named his spacecraft Friendship 8, starting a NSA tradition of astronauts naming their spacecraft.

Aquarius-Granite 4 was the fifth flight of an all-up Aquarius spacecraft. The Launch Escape System, designed by Max Koget, a tractor solid rocket above the spacecraft, had been tested successfully in the Aquarius-Little Koe program, as had the capsule heatshield and recovery equipment, and AG-3 had launched Beef the Chimpanzee on a successful flight. As on AG-3, the capsule would be under automatic control during climb, suborbital extension burn, and retro fire; only during the short free flight between booster separation and retrofire would Temple have control. In later years he would sardonically remark, "I don't know whether I'm the first man or the last monkey." However, in case of emergency after escape tower jettison, Temple would have full manual control over all spacecraft systems, and he could also manually trigger an abort at any time prior capsule separation and LES jettison.

Friendship 8 would launch atop a Granite ALV; the booster would launch it to an apogee of 90km. The LES would then jettison, and the capsule separate from the booster. The OMS would then ignite and burn for an apogee of 150km under ground radar guidance. After OMS cutoff, Temple would have 3 minutes of free flight before the turnaround maneuver. At apogee, the spacecraft would orient for retrofire, heading on orbital track and node 35 degrees down. The OMS would fire retrograde for 100m/s deltaV (as on an orbital flight). The spacecraft would then reorient again to heatshield-prograde and reenter, to splash down approximately 500km downrange.

Aquarius-Granite program to date:

AG-1: Booster test. Launch of boilerplate capsule on Granite ALV booster. Success, apogee 90km.

AG-2: All-up test. Launch of all-up Aquarius spacecraft. The Four-Inch flight. Failure, apogee 0.1m.

AG-3: Animal test. Launch of Beef the Chimpanzee. Success, apogee 110km, capsule and Beef recovered.

Notable Flight Events for Aquarius-Granite 4 Friendship 8:

T-06:00:00 Friendship Eight atop Granite ALV, during fueling in VAB at Launch Complex 8.

T+00:00:00 Liftoff!

T+00:00:23 Granite ALV begins pitching over at 2deg/s to 45 degrees.

Passing Max Q.

T+00:01:58 MECO, fuel exhausted.

T+00:02:02 LES jettison.

T+00:02:05 Capsule separation.

T+00:02:15 OMS ignition. OMS burns until apogee of 150km.

T+00:02:33 OMS cutoff. Capsule in free flight for next two minutes. Temple rolls and pitches capsule to view the Earth below him.

T+00:04:45 After automatic reorientation to retrofire attitude, OMS fires 100m/s retro burn.

T+00:5:09 Capsule reorients to reentry attitude.

T+00:5:12 OMS jettison prior to reentry.

T+00:6:12 Periscope retracts prior to reentry heating. Communication lost during reentry.

T+00:7:47 Drogue deploys at 7.5km.

T+00:09:16 Main chute fully deploys at 500m.

T+00:10:42 Splashdown! Temple awaits recovery by helicopter from USS Sims.

Edited November 1, 2013 by NathanKell

[NathanKell]

Finally, an update. Note that this is the last update to not use rescaled Kerbin, and the first to drop all pretense at Kerbalness. Given time I will later retcon the early posts to remove Ks, and use real-size launch vehicles and orbits.

Note: all persons named in this update are real (though their careers have sometimes differed, and in one case, a family did not decide to change their name).

[AbeS]

I can't wait to see the rescaled Kerbin ones! Keep up the good work!

by the way, I have one maybe noobish question, how do you make the Procedural Fairings Interstage Adapter decouple? I modified the ejection force in the cfg from 0 to 250 and it doesn't work.

EDIT: I think I figured it out, it was decoupling the top1 node, maybe by adding another module for top it should work

Edited November 2, 2013 by AbeS

[NathanKell]

AbeS, thanks!

The procedural interstage supports parts on top of it (at the rescalable-height node) with the fairing panels. To decouple that node (top01) you decouple the fairings. The fact that the interstage has a decoupler itself is only so that MJ and KER can make sense of it.

RADM Temple in retirement:

[wminsing]

I miss the Kerbal-fication but this is still one of the best AAR series running right now. Keep it up!

-Will

[Patupi]

I have to admit to want, since this is an alternate timeline, for the British... er Kritish... er, soon to be British again, to be the first to actually get a Kerbal... person into orbit... or at least the first to get a true spaceplane. Maybe they get the Hotol to work (EDIT: Yeah, a bit of a stretch from sixties to eighties tech. Still, I can hope)

Is it bad that I live in the US and still want my original Homeland to beat those darned Yanks? *chuckles*

Edited November 4, 2013 by Patupi

[MedwedianPresident]

Add Krussian or Koviet to this!

[NathanKell]

Patupi: What, first man in space wasn't enough for you?

MedwedianPresident: I do mention the Krodinans every once in a while, though the OP explains why you're not hearing from them much.

[Patupi]

No! We should have more I say! Wot wot old boy *digs out union jack and starts waving with all abandon*

FIRST BRIT ON THE MUN...er KRIT ON THE MOON...er... I'll get it right eventually.

[borisperrons]

My god!! This is one of the best AAR i've ever read, if not the best!! I deeply like the style, the techincal informations, and the fact that you gave a name to every single piece of equipment is simply brilliant. Also, I love the design of your spacecrafts and rockets. If only I had this modelling and modding skills...

I'm looking forward to see the Krits landing a blue phone-box-shaped capsule on the Mun, and claiming it in the name of the Queen Empress

[Patupi]

No, it should be RED! (Does the Master have a BT Telephone booth shaped TARDIS? *lol*)

[borisperrons]

No, it should be RED! (Does the Master have a BT Telephone booth shaped TARDIS? *lol*)

Well, I'm not that familiar with the classic series, but I'm pretty sure that in one occasion the Master's TARDIS assumed the appereance of a grandfather clock.

Which, i admit, may be more elegant and aerodinamical than a bulky phone box

[borisperrons]

Also i've got a little question for you Nathan. While i was being inspired by (i. e. shamelessly copying) your HARC Mk 4 design, I noticed the fact that you can't radially attach the small tanks to the wingtips.

So, how do you managed it? A mod? Editing the files? A wizard did it?

Please help me, or the never ending drums will never stop.

[NathanKell]

borisperrons, thanks so very much!

And good catch noticing that India remains very much within the Imperial fold.

Regrading the HARC: If you surface attach a cubic strut to the wingtip, but use wasd to rotate it so the axis of the nodes are parallel to the wingtip, you can then attach tanks to it using its nodes. You may have to have clipping on for that to work; probably not. Note that the strut is entirely hidden within the tank.

You could also surface-attach a 0.625m stretchy tank, of course.

As I'm about to reboot this...as I said I would some posts up I'll post my craft files for KATO. A few may be dependent on unreleased mods, but most should work. You'll need everything in the second post in the thread. I'll make a post in Spacecraft Exchange for it.

In other news...I'm about to reboot this. Look for Reaching for the Stars: Earth’s Rocket Age coming soon.

[NathanKell]

Reboot is up (link in sig). Only the intro; I just barely have enough power on my laptop to launch an Armbrust.

[borisperrons]

surface attach a cubic strut to the wingtip

Oh god, thank you! You're my savior!

[borisperrons]

Also, I was wondering about the alternative reality of this story: is Minmus existing?

Edited November 12, 2013 by borisperrons

[Patupi]

Well, I'm not that familiar with the classic series, but I'm pretty sure that in one occasion the Master's TARDIS assumed the appereance of a grandfather clock.

Which, i admit, may be more elegant and aerodinamical than a bulky phone box

Yeah, I was joking. The Master's TARDIS (when he still had one of his own) still had chameleon circuits working so it could be whatever he wanted it to be on the outside. Yeah, I'm not exactly a... whooey? What ever the term is for Doctor Who freak, but I know a lot about the show. Certainly most from the Doc #4 onwards.