Kerbal V (Accurate Apollo Style, Wayfare Approved.)

[Whirligig Girl]

NOW AVAILABLE: SPACELAB!

I pride myself in not having Vegetable-based fuel lines. I prefer Cereal and Pancakes to disgusting asparagus. I think of it as a rival to the Munshine V, built in the same style as the Kerbal X and Kerbal 2 as far as rocket design goes. Not a single orange tank was used, and the Lander is just the stock two-stage lander with a few modifications.

It was really fun to design, I tried to get it as accurate as possible, although you may have to do some early decoupling to get rid of a sliver of fuel in the second stage before circularization. The third stage only was used in circularization, and should not be used in ascent to orbital height. The third stage is designed to be piloted on a collision course with the Mun after MEM and CSM Separation, although it is slow to turn.

I'd love to have some feedback.

KERBALLO PROGRAM

Kerbal V

Kerlington Model Rocket Catalog entry:

The Kerbal V rocket is one of the largest rockets in the catalog. Unlike it's predescesors, the Kerbal V rocket is in fact capable of reaching the surface of the Mun, and coming back to Kerbin.

The way it accomplishes this, requires you to dock two spacecraft together in Mun orbit, as it operates on the Mun Shuttle and Mun Lander idea.

You will fly a spacecraft to the Mun, undock it into two spacecraft, then fly one down to the Munar surface. Once there, you can do all sorts of sciency things. Then you will separate the lander section, and fly the ascent module back into a rendezvous orbit to the Command Module. The Command/Service Module will then bring the astronauts back to Kerbin.

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Download (Spaceport)

UPDATED PAYLOAD

Fixed RLA Stockalike Dependency. The RCS On the lander is now Linear RCS Ports from stock, the C7-style ones instead of the 45-Degree offset RCS from RLA.

Less wobble! unfortunately it lags just slightly more until 1st stage jettison.

Edited May 6, 2014 by GregroxMun

[Wayfare]

Nice ship, Gregrox! The launcher reminds me of the Earth V, a design which inspired the Munshine V as the Munshine V has now inspired yours. I love the sharing of ideas that goes on in the Spacecraft Exchange I have to ask - why no orange tanks?

I'll probably take your rocket for a spin when I need a break from my current project. When I do I'll be sure to post some pics.

[Whirligig Girl]

Just wait until after I've updated it, it'll take about 30 mins to get everything done, and I could use your pics, I haven't the time to run a full Mun mission.

I don't use orange tanks because

1) They cause Engine Overheating

2) The Kerbal X doesn't use orange tanks.

3) The Saturn had white tanks, not orange, so the silver tanks look more accurate.

4) I will use orange tanks if I ever do a Space Shuttle or Ares. (Although I'm not sure what to name the Ares rockets, the Ares V would have to change to Kerbal V and I already have that)

Spacelab is now available!

I also updated the payload.

I'd love some feedback

Edited August 21, 2013 by Aphox
Merged multipost

[Fox62]

Good Work!

[Wayfare]

Well, snap

[Whirligig Girl]

Darn, sorry it's the RCS on the lander. I'll fix it.

should be fixed in 5-15 mins.

Fixed! try it now.

Edited August 21, 2013 by Aphox
Merged multipost

[Wayfare]

Yup, loads fine now! Going to take her for a spin.

[Whirligig Girl]

great! be sure to take some pics!

[tntristan12]

If you wanted a true Apollo experience, you could have stayed on the retrograde orbit. The actual missions did that in order to take advantage of the resulting free return trajectory in case anything went wrong and they had to cancel the LOI maneuvers.

[Wayfare]

OK grab your popcorn - I had a blast flying this rocket! I'm sure a good part of it was unintentional but this thing really put my piloting skills to the test and I loved it. Plus, I made it - there and back again. I took so many pics I had to do some serious culling. Even so I came to a 30-something pic report... Popcorn ready? Good

Jeb: Check it out! New rocket!

Bill: Shotgun!

Bob: I have some reserv...

Jeb: Yee-haw!

Bill: Bit wobbly.

Bob: ...

Bill: Left! LEFT! THE OTHER LEFT!

Jeb: Switch SCE to AUX!

Bill: WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?

Bob: YEEEEAAAAAAAARGH!

Bill: ABORT!

Bill: Whew.

Jeb: Race you to the shore?

Bob: Meep.

Jeb: Let's try that again!

Bill: Are we... Bending?

Bob: Mission control, this is CMP. Is my will up to date?

Jeb: LAUNCH!

Jeb: Hey, at least we kept our suits dry this time.

Bob: You maybe.

Jeb: Again! Yee-haw!

Jeb: I got this! I got this! I got this!

Bill: ...

Bob: YEEEEAAAARGH!

Jeb: Orbit! Boom - done.

Bill: Time to eject the launch escape tower.

Bob: Do we have to?

Jeb: The staging confuses me.

Bill: Me too.

Bob: Maybe we should...

Jeb: NOBODY TOUCH ANYTHING!

Jeb: Wake up. We're here. Man that's pretty.

Jeb: Tochdown! Boom - done.

Bill: Smile you crazy bastard!

*CLUNK*

Jeb: What was that?

Bill: Fuel pump.

Jeb: Pump broken?

Bill: Yeah, it breaks when it tries to pump vacuum.

Jeb: Oh snap. Switching to RCS.

Bill: Isn't that supposed to be the backup?

Jeb: Does it seem like we need a backup right now?

Bill: Touché.

Bill: Well that was hairy.

Jeb: IT WAS AWESOME! I WANT TO GO AGAI...

Bob: I'm burning back to Kerbin RIGHT NOW!

Jeb: Is he...?

Bill: He's kissing the ground.

Jeb: I can't watch.

[Whirligig Girl]

The way it's supposed to work is you take the second stage to as high and shallow as you can, about 120 or so km. I had some problems with fuel running out at lower altidtudes. I'm asuprised you got it to work at 70 km. Also, I desgined it to use MechJeb, I never hand-piloted it during the launch sequence .

Edited August 19, 2013 by GregroxMun

[Wayfare]

The way it's supposed to work is you take the second stage to as high and shallow as you can, about 120 or so km. I had some problems with fuel running out at lower altidtudes. I'm asuprised you got it to work at 70 km. Also, I desgined it to use MechJeb, I never hand-piloted it during the launch sequence .

Yeah, I do like to be aggressive on my gravity turns I tend to start tipping over a little bit at 4500 meters and then go by speed, reaching 45 degrees around 500m/s and horizontal around 1200m/s. It makes the most of the high thrust-to-weight ratio of these launch stages, especially when they start running low on fuel. In this flight, the fuel saved by this launch profile allowed me to recover from some pretty hefty wobble deviations. Once I was stable on the third stage I knew I was good to go to the Mun.

[Whirligig Girl]

I'm suprised you managed to flip over the second stage but not the first. the second stage is much less wobbly and easier to fly.

[Whirligig Girl]

Uploading a new improved, less wobbly version now!

uploaded wobble-less version. Much easier to pilot, although you may not laugh out loud while piloting this like wayfare did. P.S. I'd like to see some of your other pics wayfare.

I tweaked the staging a bit.

Edited August 21, 2013 by Aphox
Merged multipost: do not bump threads. Please use the edit function.

[Wayfare]

As requested, some pictures that didn't quite make the cut for the report (the rest was just under-lit garbage):

[Whirligig Girl]

Someof these were really good pics. I'd say you should integrate them in to your other post, as they do fill some storytelling niches, and they are examples pretty good photagraphy.

[DoctoOcto]

I applaud you good sir. You're good as me. ...Well, Almost good as me, I'm a accomplished Octopus Rocket Scientist. You are a species I was recently introduced to. Anyway...

Nice job, Sir. I would clap but I must be off to my expensive lounge. Ta-de-loo.

[Whirligig Girl]

I'm working on the Kerbal V Skylab now.

[Whirligig Girl]

Reuploaded to CurseForge.