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ISS Construction Journal [Image Heavy]

Mr Shifty

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Mr Shifty

Mr Shifty

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I'm fascinated by the International Space Station and after searching fruitlessly for a model that I could put together in order out of constituent parts (great toy idea BTW, budding entrepreneurs), decided to see if I could build a station model virtually. I may, at some point attempt to tackle Orbiter's beautiful ISS add-ons, but since I'm familiar with KSP already, and there's a great community art pack available, I decided to make my first attempt in Kerbal Space Program. This is a journal of that attempt as I attempt it.

Rules:

  • I will attempt to fly every ISS assembly mission; I won't fly re-supply missions, so the station configuration for each mission I fly may not match the real life configuration due to missing Soyuz, Progress, ATV, Dragon, HTV, etc.
  • I will attempt to follow the actual order of ISS assembly, rather than try to assemble in the current configuration. For instance, when Unity was attached to Zarya, it had PMA-1 on its aft side (connected to Zarya) and PMA-2 on its forward side. PMA-2 has been moved several times since then and is currently at the forward end of Harmony. I will fly STS-88 with PMA-2 connected forward Unity and attempt to model the re-location of PMA-2 during the correct missions.
  • I will attempt to use correct launchers for each part. There is currently no easy-to-use US Space Shuttle (CSS's cargo bay is one piece; I could not figure out how to load equipment into it), so I'll be using BobCat's Buran shuttle as a replacement. (ISS Community's parts are sized to fit Buran's cargo bay, so this works out nicely.)
  • If I have to sacrifice mission fidelity to get a part docked, I feel no compunction doing so.
  • I plan to make a separate post for each mission, with a link to the next one at the bottom of each and a full table of contents on this post. That way, I avoid cluttering up the OP with a bunch of pictures.
  • The add-ons I'm using consume most of my RAM, so video capture software doesn't work. I've got screenshots, but no video.
  • I'll try to chronicle my failures as well as successes, including tips for folks who want to do this as well.

Required Mods at present:

Mods that will probably be needed eventually:

Selected other mods I'm using:

The journey begins.

Completed Missions:

Assembly Flight 1 A/R: Zarya (FGB)

Assembly Flight 2A (STS-88): Unity, PMA-1, & PMA-2

Assembly Flight 1R: Zvezda

Assembly Flight 3A (STS-92): Z1 Truss & PMA-3

Expedition 1 (Soyuz TM-31): First permanent crew

Assembly Flight 4A (STS-97): P6 Truss

Assembly Flight 5A (STS-98): Destiny

Assembly Flight 7A (STS-104): Quest Joint Airlock

This imgur album shows the final ISS configuration for each of the assembly flights. Dates shown are historical launch dates for each mission.

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Assembly Flight 1 A/R: Zarya (FGB)

Historical Note:

The first component of the ISS was the Functional Cargo Block (FGB) Zarya, which launched on a Proton-K rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome on November 20, 1998.

Craft file:

http://www./view/3kf99vy3pec61ps/Proton_-_Zarya.craft

Mission Notes

  • Zarya was launched to an initial altitude of 400km, and the ISS currently orbits between about 330km and 430km. I'll be using a 120km circular orbit in the KSP recreation. Kerbin is more than 10 times smaller than the Earth by linear scale, so any orbit that is outside Kerbin's atmosphere already "looks" higher than the ISS orbit when referencing the curvature of the planet so there's no point in shooting for perfect fidelity in this instance. 120km is reachable by Buran and gives me a nice buffer below so I can do catch-up orbits for rendezvous.
  • In its current configuration, Zarya's solar panels are permanently retracted so they don't interfere with the radiators on P1/S1. They're not attached to the FGB module on the ISS craft file from the ISS Community add-on. I attached them (I used the MIR core solar part from BobCat's Soviet pack) to remain faithful to Zarya's original configuration.
  • I removed the default crew because this was an uncrewed launch.

Lift-off. (I'll only include launch screenshots once for each kind of launcher.)

HYm5jJj.jpg

First stage separation:

h95g4Ij.jpg

Second stage separation and fairing ejection:

KK1KI8o.jpg

Zarya in orbit:

UVSNIFt.jpg

Next mission journal:

Assembly Flight 2A (STS-88): Unity, PMA-1, & PMA-2

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Assembly Flight 2A (STS-88): Unity, PMA-1, & PMA-2

Historical Note:

This mission was launched 2 weeks after Zarya was orbited, on December 4, 1998. Space Shuttle Endeavour on STS-88 rendezvoused with the orbiting FGB. After using the shuttle's Canadarm to place the Unity module, PMA-1 attached aft and PMA-2 attached forward, onto the Orbiter Docking System, the crew maneuvered close to Zarya and grappled it with the Canadarm. While holding Zarya in place above PMA-1, the crew fired thrusters upward to dock Unity to Zarya. Astronauts spent several hours hooking up connectors and cables, then Russian and American astronauts together entered the orbiting space station for the first time (though there was no permanent occupation of the station until Expedition 1 in November of 2000.)

Craft file:

http://www./view/8d5v2ev1e0jd2g7/Buran_-_Unity.craft

Mission Notes:

This was a difficult mission to pull off. It required much trial and error and many re-launches. Hopefully the lessons I learned will make future shuttle missions much easier.

  • The Buran cargo bay is barely big enough to fit the Unity module. Since I wanted a PMA at both ends, it created a problem; the offset between the two ends of the PMA made the Unity clip into either the cargo bay back or door, depending on which was it was turned. I solved this problem by adding another PMA to cancel out the offset. (You can see this in one of the images below.)
  • I did a direct launch to rendezvous using MechJeb's ascent guidance. MJ is great for the initial launch until MECO (Main Engine Cut-Off), but is terrible at actually completing the circularization burn and getting to rendezvous, so I did that manually.
  • I approached to within about 150 meters of Zarya, opened the Buran cargo bay doors, grappled Unity out of its berth with the Buran manipulator arm, and maneuvered it onto the orbiter's docking port.
    • This took about 20 attempts. The Buran manipulator arms are notoriously difficult to use: move too fast, or get too off-balance and you'll set up oscillations which will tear the shuttle to pieces. I tried docking Unity without the manipulator arms (about 10 times), but for some reason it just bounced off the docking port no matter how perfectly lined up the approach was. I also found that if I actually set Unity into the docking port with the Buran arm, as soon as I let go, the port tore itself out of the shuttle and spin off into space. I had to hover Unity about a meter over the port, then let go.

    [*]After docking Unity, I found that if I switched to another vessel, e.g. Zarya, when I switched back to the Buran, it would spontaneously explode. To solve this, I switched to Zarya, docked Zarya to Unity, selected Buran's command pod to "Control from here", then undocked Unity from the shuttle. Any other method: explosion.

    [*]I didn't bother to dock Zarya to Unity with the Canadarm. I actually ended up switching to Zarya and having it approach the shuttle. So much for fidelity:)

    [*]I successfully de-orbited the Buran shuttle and successfully completed a totally unpowered descent to landing. I did, however, land on the west side of those mountains to the west of KSC, so it was a long trek home for our crew. I'll have to practice that some more.

Buran launch at sunrise:

CGdsTYr.jpg

SRB separation:

aa5IqfL.jpg

Jettisoning the ET:

bJvwtrX.jpg

Unity snug in Buran's cargo bay. (You can see the double PMA on the aft side.)

hW4JlzP.jpg

Unity mounted on the orbiter's docking port. Zarya is in the background:

iY0Yuo4.jpg

The nascent space station's first docking (EDIT: And yes it's to the wrong end of Zarya):

fgJZv7j.jpg

Inspection of PMA-1:

Jixo93q.jpg

ISS (Space Station Alpha) in orbit:

oJRNQfF.jpg

Buran re-entry:

0JhqYBj.jpg

Hey guys, where are we??

R6feBnP.png

EDIT 8/12/2013: Let the forehead slapping commence. Looking at the screenshots this morning, I realized that Unity is attached to the wrong end of Zarya. Rather than launch another mission to fix this, I'll just flip Zarya around and re-dock it prior to the next mission. I'll leave this mission as-is as a testament to my folly:)

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Assembly Flight 1R: Zvezda

Historical Note:

Zvezda was launched using a Proton-K rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on July 12, 2000. It was originally constructed to be the core of a Mir-2 space station, but was re-purposed for the ISS. The launch and docking were controlled remotely from the ground. Zvezda spent 9 days in orbit while its systems were checked out and tested, then the main engines were fired up to bring it into rendezvous with Zarya-Unity. Once it was close, the engines were shut down and Zvezda remained passive while the other two modules were maneuvered to complete the dock. Docking was accomplished on July 26, 2000.

Craft File:

http://www./view/iut65l5jc6q2boe/Proton_-_Zvezda.craft

Mission Notes:

Although the real life mission had Zarya-Unity maneuvering to perform the docking, I maneuvered Zvezda. Otherwise, this mission was relatively straightforward.

First things first. I noted my error in docking the wrong end of Zarya to Unity's aft end, so prior to launching Zvezda I flipped Zarya around and docked it correctly.

WPez1GE.jpg

Zvezda approaches the other two modules

B0dsfGH.jpg

The ISS starting to take shape

AlGEGSH.jpg

Next mission journal entry:

Assembly Flight 3A (STS-92): Z1 Truss & PMA-3

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Mr Shifty

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Why did you use the buran when you could have used the CSS?

I spent 20 minutes trying to figure out how to load stuff into the CSS cargo bay and gave up. I'm probably missing something obvious, but since the cargo bay is all one piece and not separate back and doors like Buran, I couldn't get it to work. CSS also, unlike Buran, cannot land without breaking wheels off, does not have a functioning crew hatch, and has unbalanced RCS. (Balanced linear RCS translation is critical for shuttle dockings.) I might switch to it when the mod is slightly more polished.

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I'm looking forward to see the 4th part. Looks great so far.

Thanks! It might be a few days; I've got family coming into town, so less time to work on this. The next launch is complicated; Z1 Truss, which has no model, so I have to build it from parts, and another PMA, which I'll have to maneuver into place somehow. I think I've got an ugly but functional Z1 truss with CBMs on the bottom and foreward and a truss docking port on top for the temporary location of P6. But I'm still working out how to maneuver the parts around.

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Assembly Flight 3A (STS-92): Z1 Truss & PMA-3

Historical Note:

Space Shuttle Discovery launched on October 11, 2000 for STS-92. Astronauts spent seven days installing the Z1 truss on Unity's zenith CBM and PMA-3 on Unity's nadir port using a combination of robot arm manipulation and astronaut EVA. The Z1 truss provided two control movement gyroscopes, a Ku-band communication dish, and a temporary mounting location for the P6 truss and solar array, to be delivered during Assembly Flight 4A. There is also a forward facing docking port on Z1 that was used exactly once, to temporarily hold PMA-2 while Destiny was being installed. Currently the S0 truss is mounted forward of -- and totally blocks -- this docking port.

Craft File:

http://www./view/ap4kfzt22malqx5/Buran_-_Z1.craft

Mission Notes:

  • There is no Z1 truss in the ISS Community add-on at present, so I cobbled one together out of panels and struts. It's got CBMs on the nadir and forward faces and a truss docking port on the zenith face. It's ugly, but functional, and if a Z1 truss is ever added to the ISS Community add-on, my ugly one can be replaced. I wanted to add the characteristic communication dish sticking out from the side of Z1, but it wouldn't have fit into the Buran cargo bay, and I have no animation skills to create a folding one.
  • In the historical mission, PMA-3 was mounted on a pallet in a separate cargo bay section from the Z1 truss. I loaded them docked together using the same PMA-to-PMA offset trick from Assembly Flight 2A.
  • The Buran manipulator arm continued to give me no end of problems.
    • I was able to use it to successfully dock the Z1 truss to its port. It ended up about 15 degrees off on the yaw axis, but I was able to undock, rotate the space station underneath it, then re-dock to get the alignment correct.
    • Docking the PMA with the RMS was totally unsuccessful. See the screenshots for more detail.

    [*]PMA-3 was finally, after a bunch of trial and error and error and error, docked with the correct orientation, to Unity's nadir docking port.

    [*]I brought Buran down (softly) in the water, about 100 km east of KSC. It was still recoverable via the Tracking Center, but I'll continue to fine tune that approach.

Buran docked to PMA-2

8zmuuRu.jpg

The Z1 truss being maneuvered into place

GZ4GiD7.jpg

Z1 truss successfully berthed

ZXgElGI.jpg

So, about using Buran's RMS to try to berth PMA-3:

It took forever to get the Z1 truss into the correct position, and rotation around the port's axis was very hard to get aligned correctly with the manipulator arm, so I had the bright idea of undocking Buran, using the RMS to place PMA-3 on Buran's docking port, then docking Buran to Unity's nadir port. That should have worked out well...

Here's a shot of PMA-3 being maneuvered over to Buran's ODS (Orbiter Docking System.)

1c9kQtV.jpg

Unfortunately, just before taking the above shot, I meant to press F2, to remove screen clutter, and hit F5 instead out of reflex. Note: Never, ever quicksave while the Buran manipulator arm has an object attached to it. The attempt to dock PMA-3 was unsuccessful and the PMA went floating off into space, so I attempted to quickload. But every time I quickloaded, the RMS arm would start oscillating wildly causing the shot below, followed by the shuttle spinning out of control and exploding.

s03i4Mq.jpg

So I had to quickload, then immediately release the PMA, which stopped the oscillations, but left the PMA floating in space. I tried docking Buran to it while it floated, but couldn't get it to dock; it just kept bouncing off the docking port similarly to the problems that plagued me during Assembly Flight 2A. Eventually, I just had to use the space station's RMS thrusters to maneuver it around and dock directly to the PMA.

The ISS approaching PMA-3

TnKYnQL.jpg

Successful docking and assembly complete for this mission. (You can see Buran some distance away in the background.)

Ue11lMZ.jpg

Water landing. Even though the shuttle is in pieces, this was a soft landing and I had no problem recovering the Kerbalnauts from the Tracking Station.

TYcSLQm.jpg

EDIT 8/20/2013: Once again, I have screwed up rotation. Looking at the screenshots this morning, I note that the positions of Z1 and PMA-3 should be swapped. (Zarya's forward docking port is on its nadir side, not zenith.) I'll fix the rotation issue during the next mission journal entry.

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Expedition 1 (Soyuz TM-31): First permanent crew

Historical Note:

Commander Bill Shepherd of NASA, and Pilot Sergei Krikalev and Yuri Gidzenko of the Russian Space Agency were the crew members of Expedition 1 to the International Space Station: its first permanent crew. The crew launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome using a Soyuz-TM spacecraft on October 31, 2000 and docked with the ISS on November 2. They stayed 136 days, until March 18, 2001.

It's interesting to note that the final mission to Mir was Soyuz TM-30, which undocked on June 15, 2000, so there was never a time when both stations were crewed simultaneously. Mir was de-orbited on March 23, 2001: two days after Expedition 1's return to the surface.

Craft File:

http://www./view/j7lpcv28ol19rgo/Soyuz_-_Expedition_1.craft

Mission Notes:

  • Though I won't be simulating every crew transfer for this project, I felt that the arrival of the first crew was significant and wanted to include it. It just so happens that Jeb, Bill, and Bob were available and willing. This mission was pretty straightforward, though it was my first launch of a Soyuz rocket, so I'm including shots of the launch.
  • The craft file is only very slightly modified from the rocket provided by BobCat in the Soviet pack. I added a MechJeb controller on the Soyuz spacecraft, and modified the action groups so that the upper payload fairings ejected before the lower payload fairings.
  • Note that the Soyuz in BobCat's pack is a Soyuz-TMA, which is a later variant than was used to launch Expedition 1. However, the two spacecraft look identical on the exterior, so no fidelity is lost.
  • Once the Soyuz was docked, I used Crew Manifest to transfer the crew to Zvezda.
  • I also managed to spin the ROS around so that Zarya's nadir docking port was on the same side of the station as PMA-3, to correct the rotation error from the end of the previous mission.

Soyuz launch

iedAsqJ.jpg

LES separation

6fKV9mJ.png

Second stage and payload fairing ejection

GM5VGm6.jpg

Approaching the ISS

p4MEKnI.jpg

Docked in orbit

XAJlv2d.jpg

Jeb inspects Zvezda's exterior

lxtS0mA.jpg

Bill on-board Zvezda

6D6nQjE.jpg

Next mission journal:

Assembly Flight 4A (STS-97): P6 Truss

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Assembly Flight 4A (STS-97): P6 Truss

Historical Note:

Space Shuttle Endeavour launched on December 1, 2000 for STS-97, to deliver the P6 truss and solar arrays to the International Space Station. They spent 3 days in orbit and 7 days docked to the ISS, during which time they installed the P6 truss at its temporary location on Z1's zenith, visited the Expedition 1 crew residing in the station, and conducted many tests and preparations for upcoming assembly missions.

Craft File:

http://www./view/vecsnhi22izs22a/Buran_-_P5_P6.craft

Mission Notes:

  • There is only one type of solar panel truss segment in the ISS Community add-on, named P3/P4. It is repeated on the port and starboard sides for S/P3/4 and S/P5/6 trusses. In reality P3/4 and P5/6 are not identical, and P5 & P6 had to be delivered to the space station separately because they were too long for the Space Shuttle's cargo bay together.
  • I docked Buran to PMA-2 -- on the forward end of Unity -- with its tail pointed toward zenith. Historically, Endeavour docked to PMA-3 -- on Unity's nadir -- with its tail pointed forward.
  • As before with the Buran arm, I maneuvered P6 to near its final position, then released the magnet and pushed the station into the truss with RCS.
  • Note that the truss docking ports, though they are trapezoidally shaped and, in reality, would only attach in one orientation, will -- in the game -- attach in any roll orientation.

Buran docked and in the first stages of maneuvering P6 into place.

dTLf2jE.jpg

P6 successfully docked onto the Z1 truss

PsWI0Nf.jpg

The station through Buran's windows as it gets ready to depart

M44C5GB.jpg

ISS in orbit

aJo7MYY.jpg

Buran approaching the runway. I'm starting to get the de-orbit burns down, as you can see. Tragically, in the process of trying to actually land on the runway, I gained too much vertical speed. The crew of Buran is now in the Kerbal after-life waiting room awaiting re-incarnation. They'll be back in flight status before too long.

Rv0yQPG.jpg

Next mission journal entry:

Assembly Flight 5A (STS-98): Destiny

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Mr Shifty

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Minor thing, but she's actually called Space Shuttle Endeavour, her name uses the british spelling. :)

Great thread, looking forward to more updates!

Ah thanks! I think I had it right in a few posts. I need to go through and edit all of them to get the spellings right and italicize the spacecraft names.

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King Arthur

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Hey Mr Shifty,

You mentioned earlier in one of your mission updates that you couldn't find a Z1 truss part and had to improvise with panels and struts. Would the "K1" truss located at (http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/24826) be a suitable Z1 truss part? I haven't used this mod so I don't actually know if it's adequate, but seeing as it's called "K1" it might be something similar to what you need. :)

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Hey Mr Shifty,

You mentioned earlier in one of your mission updates that you couldn't find a Z1 truss part and had to improvise with panels and struts. Would the "K1" truss located at (http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/showthread.php/24826) be a suitable Z1 truss part? I haven't used this mod so I don't actually know if it's adequate, but seeing as it's called "K1" it might be something similar to what you need. :)

I'll have to check it out (can't find any images of it.) The description says it's "gigantic", so probably is intended to be the whole truss assembly, rather than one small segment, but I'll try to find out. I'm actually pretty satisfied with what I ended up with; it'll be mostly hidden anyway by the time the station is finished. Thanks for the tip!

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Assembly Flight 5A (STS-98): Destiny

Historical Note:

Space Shuttle Atlantis launched on February 7, 2001 to deliver the Destiny Laboratory Module to the ISS for STS-98. The shuttle spent two days in orbit then docked to PMA-3 on the nadir of Unity. They spent 6 days docked to the ISS. To install Destiny, first the robotic arm moved PMA-2 from Unity's forward port to the Manual Berthing Module on the forward end of Z1. (This was the one and only time this port was used.) Then Destiny was installed on Unity's forward port and PMA-2 was moved from Z1 to the forward end of Destiny. After completing this and other tasks (including the 100th spacewalk) the Shuttle crew waved farewell to the crew of Expedition 1 and departed, landing at Edwards AFB on February 20, 2001.

Craft Files:

http://www./view/dgcowhcvji3ox4d/Buran_-_Destiny.craft

http://www./download/vq93gh681n22tgw/Destiny_-_Config.zip

Mission Notes:

  • I had to modify the part.cfg file for the Destiny module. I added an attachment node on top so that I could put a truss docking port there, to be used in the future to attach the S0 truss. There's a link to the modified config file above.
  • I docked Buran to the correct PMA this time, then used the RMS arms to move PMA-2 to Z1, Destiny into place, and PMA-2 to the forward port of Destiny, just like the historical missions.
    • Again, though, I had to adjust the roll axis for Destiny, which was off about two degrees, by undocking it, rotating the station underneath it, then re-docking quickly.
    • When I re-docked PMA-2 to Destiny's forward port, its roll rotation was off by about 90 degrees. (There is an axis you can't rotate the RMS arm in, which limits its usefulness.) To fix this, I undocked Buran from PMA-3, re-docked to PMA-2 with careful roll alignment, undocked PMA-2 from Destiny, rolled Buran to the proper orientation, then re-docked PMA-2 to Destiny.

    [*]The de-orbit burn was a little long again, giving me a water landing east of KSP. Maybe by the time the ISS is complete, I'll be able to land on the runway.

Buran approaching the ISS from underneath

fvRundl.jpg

PMA-2 being maneuvered to Z1 dock

RYJhaWF.jpg

Destiny being maneuvered into place. (You can see the Z1 forward port being used for its only time.)

ttvXS6A.jpg

PMA-2 being maneuvered to the forward port of Destiny

17uuJI2.jpg

PMA-2 attached, but with the wrong orientation

Hw8oLxe.jpg

Fixing PMA-2's orientation

H30cUXq.jpg

The current configuration of the ISS

XldUwOD.jpg

Next journal entry

Assembly Flight 7A (STS-104): Quest Joint Airlock

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Assembly Flight 7A (STS-104): Quest Joint Airlock

Historical Note

Space Shuttle Atlantis launched from Kennedy Space Center on July 12, 2001. The astronauts conducted three spacewalks to install and test the airlock, which is meant to accommodate both Russian and U.S. spacesuit designs. (Prior to this, American astronauts could only spacewalk through the Shuttle's airlock when it was docked.) Quest consists of two sections: a larger diameter equipment storage locker and the smaller diameter airlock itself. Atlantis spent 8 days docked to the ISS, the de-orbited and landed at Kennedy late at night on July 24th after having had two earlier de-orbit windows scrubbed because of weather at the cape.

Craft File

http://www./view/kmm1dwnzcw9wh01/Buran_-_Quest.craft

Mission Notes

  • I did not simulate Assembly Flight 5A.1, installation of External Stowage Platform-1 or Assembly Flight 6A, installation of Canadarm2. The ESP's are smaller external components that have no model; I'm not going to bother with them. Canadarm2 I'll either bring up pre-attached to one of the truss segments or maybe just won't bother with it either.
  • This was a pretty straightforward mission. Quest was easy to load into the Buran cargo bay and relatively easy to manipulate into place with the robotic arm.
  • The final rotation of the docked components is getting harder and harder to get right, just because the size of the station makes it difficult to turn and stabilize underneath a part now, particularly when it has to turn on its long axis. You can see from the images that when I initialy got Quest docked, it was 90 degrees out of rotation. (The large circular airlock hatch cover should be pointed toward station zenith.) It took several interations of "undock, rotate slightly, redock" to get it in the correct orientation. In the future, I suspect that I'll have to use an external tug to manipulate parts into place.
  • This mission had the first successful landing of Buran on the KSC runway. So yay!

Buran docked with Quest in the cargo bay. (Buran's docked orientation matches the historical one.)

CE6DAo7.jpg

Maneuvering Quest into place with the RMS arm

1lXJ6DH.jpg

Docked, but with the airlock hatch pointed forward, instead of toward zenith

D1FWLQv.jpg

A Kerbalnaut inspects the correctly oriented hatch

j8bLbi0.jpg

The station with Quest installed as Buran is departing

G966EeX.jpg

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you a successful landing at KSC

BIip2O0.jpg

Edited by Mr Shifty
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