Project Atlantis: Floating Eve Ocean Base

[SirJodelstein]

I have decided to build a base on Eve because it looks awesome from orbit and i want to see some close-ups. A small team of kerbals will be sent there to explore the world and its metallic-gleaming oceans. For now, i do not plan to return them home, but don't tell them yet . I want to keep them supplied with drops from orbit.

When building the base, i decided that it should be able to lift itself out of the water and fly to another nearby location. Trips to nearby land masses will be done by smaller boats. Without further ado, here are the images of my first interplanetary base-building mission.

Project Atlantis Part 1: Getting there

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All designs have only been tested on kerbin in my "simulator" savegame, mission pics are from my main "permadeath" savegame. So far, the mission is coming along quite well, but the launch window to Eve is closing, so i cannot waste a lot of time anymore. I can only hope that the preparations were good enough. I have planned to bring two expendable lightweight "aerocapture testing probes" along, which will enter Eves atmosphere at different altitudes to find a good aerobraking altitude for the core stage. The stage will orbit Eve for some time to scan for a good landing point. Landing behaviour will also be probed with lightweight dummies.

Next up: interplanetary drive stage, refueling missions, crew completion and utility delivery

(to be continued)

Edited August 7, 2013 by SirJodelstein

[SirJodelstein]

Successful delivery of the drive stage, refuelling and crew completion. Started a separate orbiter for the atmospheric testing probes because of lag (and i put the wrong-sized docking ports on the first set of probes that went with the refuelling craft. Both crafts are on their way to Eve. All images are in the album in the first post, here are some highlights

new galaxy backdrop powered by the great Universe Replacer

[SirJodelstein]

It is done! The base has safely landed on Eve! My screenshot folder is overflowing Added some entry and landing pictures to the album in the first post, and starting a new one for surface operations.

The orbiter arrived 3 days earlyier than the base, deployed two probes for aerobraking and began to scan the planet for a nice landing spot. The entry/landing probes turned out to be incredibly useful for finding good aerobraking altitudes and for testing landing profiles. I managed to land the base 15 km from the second lander probe.

Project Atlantis Part 2: Surface operations

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[Rhyunix]

This is awesome! Tell me though, how are they going to do any research about land and such... in water?

[SirJodelstein]

This is awesome! Tell me though, how are they going to do any research about land and such... in water?

Examination of land masses are not the primary focus of this mission. The next flight will however bring a small raft that will be used to reach the shoreline and the surrounding islands. I have also requested an Eve-capable person-transport rover in the rocket builder forum (my rover designs usually lead to explosions, crashes and dead kerbals)

[Rhyunix]

What is the main focus then?

[Commander Zoom]

Presumably, that radioactive soup of blutonium salts and Harv knows what else pretending to be a proper ocean...

[OUScooby]

Is that all stock parts?

[Rhyunix]

I don't think so - look at the life rings and the sensory equipment on the base. Apart from that I think its mod free

[SirJodelstein]

What is the main focus then?

Presumably, that radioactive soup of blutonium salts and Harv knows what else pretending to be a proper ocean...

The mission objective is to promote the awesomeness of interplanetary space exploration. The crew consists of one astronaut/flight engineer (Seegee Kerman) and four social media specialists. There won't be much science happening anytime soon. Most of the time, the crew will be occupied with taking pictures and videos to post on their mission website :-)

Is that all stock parts?

Almost stock, with the exception of the aforementioned life rings from the "Sea Sickness Cure" mod (to allow Kerbals to walk on the floating base), a Kerbal Engineering Redux Chip for flight data readouts, and some red lights from the "Aviation Lights" mod for the central antenna. The orbiter satellite has a ISA Mapsat Antenna. Apart from that, its stock.

Edited August 8, 2013 by SirJodelstein

[SirJodelstein]

Well, this project has been going way too well for too long, it was about time that i screw up somehow. Here is the story of flight "Atlantis Mobility":

The objective of the first support flight to the recently established base was to bring crew-relocation vessels to the base. So, the asymmetrical yet perfectly balanced pair "Heek" (short-range raft) and "Vole" (rover) were mounted on an interplanetary drive stage and sent to Eve.

Well, it turns out that i need to work on my precision landing skills. Heek overshot the base and landed 150km away (at least i managed to land in water). Problem: the raft has a maximum range of about 100km. The engineers at KSC are now doing night shifts to develop a precision lander to drop a fuel buoy on the course. So, the boat is not lost, just delayed! A test of it's drive characteristics in the violet soup that makes up Eves oceans show a minor reduction in top speed (25m/s) compared to Kerbin, but apart from that it handles really great.

The rover landed a little bit closer to the base and luckyly managed to miss the water. It went down 60km from it's targeted landing zone. Next problem: Two wheels and the rear lights broke off during the backflip rollcage test that was 100% safe on Kerbin. To my surprise, i found out that Vole can drive completely stable on just four wheels :-) Next stop: Coast near the base. Then shutdown the systems and wait until the crew from the base has a boat to reach the shoreline (20km distance)

Full album

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[SirJodelstein]

Well, that was quite a long journey. A little bit damaged, Vole has arrived on the shoreline after covering over 80km of hills and mountains. The rover has lost its two rear wheels, but should still be funtional.

Halfway through the treck, I decided that i need a mod to keep track of the covered distances, so i took a break from active playing and dipped into the realm of KSP modding. The result can be seen in the image, the mod behind it is here: Persistent Trails Mod

Now, the Atlantis crew needs to wait for the arrival of the refuelling buoys that will allow the distant boat to reach the base.