Project Ocean - Reusable Orbiter Space Program

[dodrian]

Mission Reports for Project Ocean, a reusable orbiter space program.

Mission Brief: Following the successful design and maiden flight of D001 Basking Shark, the Ocean initiative was concieved. The goal of this space program is to launch all missions from 100% reusable SSTO orbiters, which return to land at KSP. Payloads released from the orbiters are not necessarily reusable, and may be left in orbit or on planetary bodies.

Mission Goals:

Stage 1: Assemble a permanent station and refueling depot in LKO.

Stage 2: Launch a munar expedition from an orbiter. Return samples in an orbiter cargo bay.

Stage 3: Establish a Kethane mining base on Minimus.

Stage 4: Launch an interplanetary expedition from an orbiter.

[dodrian]

Fleet details:

D001 Basking Shark

The workhorse of Project Ocean, this orbiter is capable of taking up to 40T into LKO.

Crew Capacity: 3

Payload Capacity: 40T

Classification: HL HTOL

Status: Active Service

Craft: Atlantis, Aegean

D002 Great White

XL lifter, for wide payloads. Entirely rocket fueled, this craft is not the most efficient lifter, but useful for those larger payloads.

Crew Capacity: 2

Payload Capacity: ~30T

Classification: S2-Wide VTOHL

Status: Flight Testing

D003 Wahoo

Crew transport, for rotating station crews in LKO.

Crew Capacity: 7

Payload Capacity: N/A

Classification: S2 HTOL

Status: Active service

D004 Marlin

Small Payload orbiter.

Crew Capacity: 1

Payload Capacity: 7T

Classification: S2 HTOL

Status: Pending revisions after flight testing.

Edited August 24, 2013 by dodrian

[dodrian]

Current Bases:

Old Magellan Station:

Magellan 'Lite' (Magellan, remade without the docking components, easier on the CPU)

Edited August 27, 2013 by dodrian

[dodrian]

Project Ocean - Stage 1 - Magellan

Stage Goal: Build a crewed science and refueling station in LKO

Photos:

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Project Ocean - Stage 1 - Magellan 1

Mission Goal: Deliver the first module of Station Magellan into 80Kx80K orbit.

Craft: D001 Basking Shark - Atlantis

Crew: Bill Kerman, Bob Kerman, Jebediah Kerman

Status: Success!

Mission Report: D001 Basking Shark Atlantis, piloted by Bill, Bob and Jeb, took up the first module of the Magellan station, deploying it in a circular 80KM orbit. There were some hiccups during reentry, the runway was overshot by a considerable distance, but the atmospheric engines were restarted and the craft flown back to KSC for a successful landing. Bill commented that the Basking Shark had a surprisingly short stopping distance for such a large spaceplane.

Edited August 24, 2013 by dodrian

[Mr Shifty]

Very nice! What parts packs are you using? (I'm pretty sure those cargo bay doors aren't stock:)

[astropapi1]

Very nice! What parts packs are you using? (I'm pretty sure those cargo bay doors aren't stock:)

B9 Aerospace.

Pretty obvious, heh?

[dodrian]

Very nice! What parts packs are you using? (I'm pretty sure those cargo bay doors aren't stock:)

At the moment it's just B9 Aerospace, FAR and Mechjeb. Later I will add Kethane, and possibly some others :-)

[dodrian]

Project Ocean - Stage 1 - Magellan 2

Mission Goal: Deliver and attach docking ring to Magellan station.

Craft: D001 Basking Shark - Aegean

Crew: Lemton Kerman, Sidberry Kerman, Caldrin Kerman

Status: Success!

Magellan Station with docking ring:

Mission Report:

Orbit, station rendezvous and docking ring deployment proceeded as planned. Kerbonauts were given the option of docking and touring the station, but Lemtom went yellow at the thought of having to dock the Aegean, and Caldrin complained of 'queasiness'. Docking left for a later mission. Aegean stayed for several more orbits awaiting daylight re-entry window. Due to a slight re-entry miscalculation, the Aegean landed a few thousand[?] km of course on the peninsula due east of KSC. Aegean will have to sit a few missions out while they scramble the Kerbal navy. Sidberry is glad he brought extra snacks.

More mission photos here

[dodrian]

Project Ocean - Stage 1 - Magellan 3

Mission Goal: Deliver and attach emergency escape pods to Magellan station.

Craft: D001 Basking Shark - Atlantis

Crew: Bill Kerman, Bob Kerman, Jebediah Kerman

Status: Success!

Watching MechJeb dock four pods at once, quite a sight:

Mission Report:

Bill, Bob and Jeb back in command delivering those vital escape pods to the Magellan station. Kerbonaut Regulation 17.4.b.x states that all low orbit stations must have escape vehicles for all crew members for use in event of an emergency (oxygen leak, radiation flare, loss of WiFi, etc...). After releasing the pods, our three heroes sat back and sipped space-iced-tea and watched them autodock. With Magellan officially cleared as a permanent habitat, Atlantis docked and Jeb received his first permanent assignment. Leaving Jeb behind, Bob and Bill returned to KSC, but a slight landing mishap left one of the wings damaged. After multiple re-entry problems, our brave Kerbonauts have put in a request for the engineering team to look into alternative re-entry solutions.

More mission photos here

[dodrian]

Project Ocean - Stage 1 - Magellan 4

Mission Goal: Deliver and assemble solar array for Magellan Station.

Craft: D001 Basking Shark - Baltic

Crew: Bill Kerman, Bob Kerman, Milzer Kerman

Status: Partial success.

The Magellan Solar array had to be carefully folded into Baltic's cargo bay:

This was slightly less carefully unpacked, then painstakingly reassembled.

Magellan Station is beginning to look serviceable!

Mission Report:

Bill, Bob and Milzer took up the disassembled solar panels to Magellan Station, however experienced some troubles during rendezvous. The Baltic ended up about a kilometer off from Magellan station with no RCS fuel left. Dumping the four truss pieces, these were painstakingly reassembled into two arrays, then attached onto the Magellan station. This was a very difficult and slow process, and by the time the arrays were set up, the Baltic had drifted several kilometers away. Original mission intent was for Milzer to remain with Jeb on Magellan Station, but this was deemed too unsafe as the Baltic was unable to dock or even maneuver closely. Still, the main mission objective was successful, and the Baltic returned safely to KSC.

[dodrian]

Project Ocean - Stage 1 - Magellan 5

Mission Goal: Deliver and attach crew habitat to Magellan Station.

Craft: D001 Basking Shark - Aegean

Crew: Lemton Kerman, Caldrin Kerman, Calman Kerman

Status: Resounding success!

Aegean docked with Magellan and newly added crew habitat.

Mission Report:

With the Aegean and her crew finally recovered after their emergency landing site relocation, she was refueled and sent up to Magellan Station with the crew habitats. To save space and weight, only one of the two crew habitat sections was given an RCS tank and maneuvering capabilities, this section first steered and docked the other habitat section to Magellan Station, then it detached itself and maneuvered to the other side of the Station.

The Aegean successfully docked with the station, and Calman was reassigned to join Jeb on board. After a few orbits waiting for daylight over KSC, the Aegean undocked, and to Lemton and Caldrin's great delight they succeeded in a fully unpowered landing on the KSC runway after the deorbit burn, the first time atmospheric engines haven't been needed on descent.

More mission photos here

[dodrian]

Project Ocean - Stage 1 - Magellan 6

Mission Goal: Deliver and attach secondary docking assembly.

Craft: D001 Basking Shark - Atlantis

Crew: Bill Kerman, Bob Kerman, Sidberry Kerman

Status: Success!

Atlantis docks with the newest module.

Mission Report:

The penultimate station piece to be assembled, Bill, Bob and Sidberry took up a second docking array to Magellan station. There were some problems with the Kerbal Attachment System, and the docking array became unattached from Atlantis during ascent and rattled around the cargo bay, destroying a few internal solar panels. Once rendezvous'd, attaching the docking array was fairly straightforward. Sidberry joined the Magellan Station crew, Bob and Bill piloted Atlantis safely back to KSC.

Meanwhile, KSC engineers after much research and testing were able to lead a training session on proper Basking Shark re-entry procedures. Apparently, the secret is to pump all remaining fuel to the front of the craft. Still a bit nervous, Kerbonaut pilots insisted they add some drogue parachutes to the rear for emergency use. KSC engineers muttered under their breath and complied anyway, despite professional worries about structural integrity, air-resistance profile, or over-inflated pilot egos.

[duncan1297]

loss of WiFi

this is a major issue.

[dodrian]

Project Ocean - Stage 1 - Magellan 7

Mission Goal: Deliver final module to Magellan station.

Craft: D001 Basking Shark - Baltic

Crew: Lemton Kerman, Caldrin Kerman, Kenkin Kerman

Status: Success -

Mission Report:

The final module for delivery to Magellan Station was a refueling depot. Weighing in at 40T, this module came in at the very upper limit of Baltic's carrying capacity. Thank's to Lemton's expert piloting during ascent, the Baltic made it to orbit and rendezvous with Magellan, even if the last few orbital adjustments had to be made with RCS.

At this point, however, the mission took a turn for the worse. Upon opening the cargo bay, flight technician Kenkin discovered that somehow and older prototype of the refueling module had been loaded aboard. This module lacked a second docking port, battery array, solar panels and RCS translation in the Y axis. After conferring with KSC, mission control decided to proceed with and attempt to dock the less than ideal module rather than incur the extra costs, time and risks associated with re-flying the mission.

Payload module was able to maneuver for a limited time using reserve batteries in the probe core, disabling the core flywheels minimized energy drain. Missing a dimension in RCS translation made steering the module very difficult, and it was only on the third attempt, down to 15% reserve power that the refueling module was able to successfully dock with Magellan Station. Missing a docking port on the other side leaves Magellan Station without a Clamp-o-Tron Sr. for future missions. Designs for refueling the station will have to be tweaked a bit. Or perhaps this module will be completely replaced when empty.

Lemton was proud of being able to fly into orbit without having to siphon off the refuelling tank, though he did have to concede defeat and dock with Magellan Station and refuel for the deorbit burn. Kenkin stayed in orbit.

One mission left in phase 1 - sending up the rest of the Magellan crew.

Edited August 26, 2013 by dodrian

[dodrian]

this is a major issue.

Maslow's heirarchy of needs updated for the 21st century:

[dodrian]

A slight edit - Magellan Lite

My computer was slowing to a crawl whenever I approached Magellan station, so I decided to rebuild the Station with fewer parts. In the SPH I rebuilt the station without most of the RCS tanks, probe cores, RCS blocks, and batteries (all the equipment which was needed for docking the modules) then edited it into orbit. The only major difference between the modular version and this new one is a few extra structural fuselages to extend the docking portsâ€â€having removed a number of smaller pieces the docking ports ended up too close to the solar panels. While this feels a bit like cheating (and means I can no longer make changes to the station), it has nearly halved the part count and my computer is noticeably more responsive.

The 'new' station:

One mission left in the Magellan Series, then onwards to the moon!

[dodrian]

Magellan 8 - Mission Disaster Report

Magellan 8 started well, Bill Kerman taking the remaining crew up to Magellan Station on the newly commissioned D003 Wahoo class Caspian. A bit overzealous, Bill punched the throttle without setting waiting for the correct launch window, however after a few hours in orbit they managed a rendezvous with Magellan Station. Transferring the crew into their new habitat, Bill refueled, undocked and set up the re-entry burn.

It seemed like a perfect re-entry, Bill retook manual control of the Caspian when she had slowed to subsonic speeds, a few km north-west of the KSC runway. Banking sharply, Bill quickly lined up with the runway, but the Caspian began to fishtail. Bill recovered the vehicle, but already nearly a third down the runway he attempted to bring the craft down before an aborted landing would be needed.

It's unclear what went wrong at this stage, whether the craft came down too hard, if it was still travelling sideways as it touched the runway or if there was a craft fault. Black box recording shows that the one of the wings clipped the ground first, though visual reports demonstrated it was under considerable stress and appeared misaligned. It seemed for a moment that Bill would be able to retain control of the vessel, but with one wing gone Caspian flipped onto its back and was torn apart on the tarmac.

Flight engineers have grounded the Wahoo fleet pending a full investigation. The crash reports can be found here and here.

Reacting to the news, Magellan Station commander Jebediah Kerman spoke on behalf of his crew.

"We are all utterly shocked up here. We had seen Bill off at the airlock just 12 minutes prior to the crash and could never have guessed that anything would go wrong. The conclusion of Magellan Station construction has been overshadowed by this melancholy event."

Speaking at Bill's memorial service Project Ocean director Gene Kerman said these words:

"Bill was one of the most experienced kerbonauts on the Project Ocean program, having clocked out the most hours as a pilot. Bill's accident serves as a reminder that nothing we do is routine, and pushing the boundaries of exploration requires a heroic commitment and sometimes great sacrifice."

Program directors unanimously agreed to posthumously award Bill Kerman the medal of Exceptional Pilot skill for his courageous attempts to set the craft down safely.

RIP Bill Kerman