Constellation Space Program - Three Part Challenge

[capi3101]

Haven't got time to type - Constipation XI-A and Constipation XII-A are now in orbit of Duna, their orbits are aligned and the cargo lander made a successful touchdown last night. A more formal report later.

[Istas]

Death Engineering: The rules say no RTGs on the Orion, but can one use LV-N's? Can one use LV-Ns on any of the other craft? How about ions (which are already in use) for the solar satellite?

[Death Engineering]

Death Engineering: The rules say no RTGs on the Orion, but can one use LV-N's? Can one use LV-Ns on any of the other craft? How about ions (which are already in use) for the solar satellite?

There is no exclusion of LV-N engines, same for ion drive engines. The rule against RTG's on the Orion is only there to reward designs which stick to the RL Orion specs.

Edited November 24, 2013 by Death Engineering

[Istas]

There is no exclusion of LV-N engines, same for ion drive engines. The rule against RTG's on the Orion is only there to reward designs which stick to the RL Orion specs.

Thanks for the response! That is what I thought, I just wanted to make sure before going through the trouble.

[capi3101]

So, my turn for a scoring question - I swear this will be the last one. Honest. Which is what I honestly recall is what I said the last time...

Land at least four Kerbals on Duna within 10 km (100 km if by rover) of the above Duna lander. To earn these points, the un-Kerballed lander above must be landed and remain powered. Successful landing must take place before the landing crew has committed to Duna re-entry (+5)

Duna Outpost: The Duna lander uses the Duna Outpost Variant which stays on the surface and includes a pressurized rover. (+3)

So here's my sitrep - I piggybacked the cargo lander (which hauls the pressurized rover) with the KRV to Duna; you said this was okay in a previous post. I landed the rover first and then let the KRV come around one orbit before setting it down. Problem there - my craft are in a polar orbit, so while I was sending the KRV around one more time, the planet was turning. Wound up setting it down 40 klicks from the rover.

So I didn't want to repeat the same mistake again with the crewed Duna lander. I got them transferred over from the Scorpio crew module quickly and performed a descent burn (having previously matched planes with the other two landers while they were all still in orbit). Unfortunately, this was not a planned descent burn and I wound up overshooting the KRV by 40 klicks.

So - my crew is on the surface. They are 40 klicks from the KRV and 80 klicks from the rover. The crewed lander is the same outpost design I stuck on the Mün and the pressurized rover is on the surface (just 80 klicks away). The KRV and cargo lander both included rovers (I have three rovers in the area), but the outpost design doesn't include them (i.e. at the present time the closest rover to my crew is 40 klicks off; those are a pair of unpressurized Hellriders with the KRV). Were I to drive the pressurized rover from its present position to my crew's position, would I qualify for those eight points, or do I need to pack it in at this point?

[Death Engineering]

This part of the challenge implies that the maximum range a kerbal can EVA on foot while on Duna is 10km and the maximum range a kerbal can EVA while in their rover is 100km. Using a robotic rover to pick up the crew would have unlimited range while un-crewed. So, if they need to travel more than that to get to their KRV, they could be in trouble.

However, an argument could be made that if using a pressurized rover, the range would be unlimited. I would accept that argument.

[capi3101]

Okay...so I could just haul it out there, get everybody aboard, then make sure they go into the cabin in pairs every ten klicks? (The rover's pressurized cabin only accommodates two at a time).

Would I actually have to show that's what I did? That sounds a bit tedious...

[Death Engineering]

Would I actually have to show that's what I did? That sounds a bit tedious...

Rather.. I'd say that would be something which would happen "off camera".

[Titan Space Agency]

I accept this chalenge. I will be going for the full design points...

USING ONLY STOCK PARTS. HAHAHA, all 82 design points Fully stock.

I will be making videos on my progress though the chalange.

-Titan Space Agency

P.S. Are Things that help you desighn alowed?

P.S.S. Are Side mounted things (like the space shuttle) allowed?

Edited November 24, 2013 by Titan Space Agency

[Death Engineering]

Design assistance mods are fine. What kind of side mounted things do you mean?

[Istas]

I accept this chalenge. I will be going for the full design points...

USING ONLY STOCK PARTS. HAHAHA, all 82 design points Fully stock.

Yeah, stock-only is fun. I think the design points add up to 70 though, not 82.

[capi3101]

Rather.. I'd say that would be something which would happen "off camera".

Okay. Totally cool with that. Maybe say something in the text.

Yeah, stock-only is fun. I think the design points add up to 70 though, not 82.

Yep. It adds up to seventy. 7 available science points and 59 mission points.

Istas, I guess I hadn't realized that you'd already completed everything...

I'm awful close my own self. Got the pressurized rover over to the outpost after a long and harrowing drive, so my guys can head over to the KRV at their leisure at this point. Probably will do some EVA things, then start heading that way; I've been at this challenge for nearly two months so I'm kinda anxious to wrap it up...

[Titan Space Agency]

Design assistance mods are fine. What kind of side mounted things do you mean?

Things like a space shuttle. I thought about making a shuttle C rocket.

[Nephf]

Here's my Ares I:

Download

[Death Engineering]

Here's my Ares I:

Is that 2 stages of SRBs there, or mod SRBs? Looks cool either way!

[Nephf]

Is that 2 stages of SRBs there, or mod SRBs? Looks cool either way!

12 SRBs all clipped into each other. 4000 kN of thrust. on top of the SRBs there are structural fuselages.

Edited November 26, 2013 by Nephf

[Death Engineering]

Brilliant!

[vincespeedmk2]

After a long delay, work has finally resumed on the vincespeed Konstellation Program.

Just a quick check on the rules though. With the pressurised rover delivery to mum. Can a LKO rendezvous mission profile be used as with the Orion.

[Death Engineering]

Sure that's totally fine. Are you carrying the rover to the Mun on a lander or on an orbiter? Either is fine, just curious.

[vincespeedmk2]

Sure that's totally fine. Are you carrying the rover to the Mun on a lander or on an orbiter? Either is fine, just curious.

I'm gonna carry it over on the back of an Altair LM2 (cargo variant). The crew variant can only ship an additional 3 tons and the pressurised rover is a bit of a fat baby.

Edited November 28, 2013 by vincespeedmk2
Spell check

[Istas]

GEE staff has resumed their tinkering with simulations, asking silly questions like, "What if Kerbin had the same gravity, but was ten times bigger?", "What if the atmosphere extended higher, and parts other than wings could create lift?", "What if there were other types of fuels we could use?", "What if the Kerbonauts needed to bring more snacks, and even air?", "What sorts of engines would we need for all this?" and so on.

They have designed a new station, and claim it would be best for its orbit to be over 400km in altitude to avoid drag from the higher atmosphere. Orbital velocity would now be over 7500 m/s.

They claim they'll still be able to get Kerbals to Duna and back. We here in the GEE Press Closet won't be holding our breath.

[Istas]

Good Enough Engineering announces completion of the design phase of its Orion crew capsule and Ares I launch vehicle.

Each Orion capsule seats up to six crewmembers, and is a fully-functional spacecraft in and of itself. It carries 12,000 units of electrical capacity with deployable solar panels, while avoiding the use of hazardous radioactive materials to improve safety. It has an RCS maneuvering system, as well as a universal class-2 docking port for combined mission profiles and a remote-guidance module for non-kerbaled spaceflight.

Before reentering Kerbin's atmosphere, Orion drops its orbital engine and all remaining rocket and RCS fuel. It is equipped with eight chutes to improve comfort and safety and enable both land and sea recovery. It is also equipped with a heat shield, which one of the engineers thought might be necessary.

Most importantly, every Orion crew capsule is required to launch with a Launch Escape System, which will whisk the crew cabin away from the launch vehicle at the first sign of dangerous malfunction.

Orion comes in two configurations so far, both fueled with LH2+LOX; Block I with limited orbital maneuvering capacity (1700 dV, 18t including 5.4 tons of propellant, and supplies for 6 crew for 40 days), and Block II for future deep-space missions (3400 dV, 32t including 16.3t of propellant, 2.2 tons of supplies, and CO2 and H2O recyclers, giving a mission duration of 22 months for 6 crew). Both versions have been test-fired on the launch pad and will soon begin flight testing on the new Ares I launch vehicle.

The Ares I launch vehicle is a 708-ton (without payload) two-stage rocket capable of lifting over 35 tons to a 110km circular orbit via 9200 vac. dV. The first stage consists of a single block of SRBs that all fire concurrently producing 13.1 MN of thrust, and the second stage consists of a single 2300 kN LH2+LOX liquid-fuel engine and structurally-integrated tank stack. It is fully capable of delivering both Block I and Block II configurations of the Orion module to Low Kerbin Orbit.

Both the first and second stages of the Ares I launch vehicle have been test-fired and approved for a proving flight. The Ares I has been fully assembled on the pad with a dummy load exceeding the mass of the Orion Block II crew vehicle and is scheduled for a test-flight Sometime Soon.

Thank you all for your time. Any inquiries may be directed to GEE's PR department.((
Mods being used for this run:

Parts/Mechanics
Real Solar System
Deadly Reentry
Ferram Aerospace Research
TAC Life Support
KW Rocketry
NovaPunch (only a few parts; 5m tanks and adapters, launch escape towers, and the biggest solid boosters)
Modular Fuel Tanks (with Real Fuels and realistic masses)
Magic Smoke Industries/Infernal Robotics
Kerbal Attachment System
Procedural Fairings
Procedural Wings
Kerbal Joint Reinforcement

Information/Cosmetic
City Lights and Clouds (minus the city lights)
Chatterer
Kerbal Engineer Redux
Protractor
Kerbal Alarm Clock
PreciseNode

It takes about 9000 dV to get to LKO, 3100 to get a Mun encounter, 800 to get into Mun orbit, 1600 to land, 1600 to take back off, 800 to get a Kerbin encounter, and a shallow reentry angle to avoid burning up or having the crew die from excessive G's. And the Mun's orbit is significantly inclined, to make up for the 0-degree tilt of Kerbin in KSP (vs the 23.5 of Earth plus the Moon's own inclination).
)) Edited November 30, 2013 by Istas

[Istas]

Ares I boilerplate launch. Includes buttons in the annotations for fast-forwarding to the different stages of the flight, as I don't expect everyone to want to sit through 9 minutes of launch and deorbit.

Also, not going to bother with points second time around. I'm going to re-do all the stuff I did before so there's no point in me keeping track, unless somebody requests it. Edited November 30, 2013 by Istas

[Istas]

Launch Escape System (LES) test, using Orion Block I.

Orion Block I launch, orbit, reentry test. Played at 5x acceleration. Tilted over a bit on launch, then turned off SAS at 8 seconds and didn't touch the controls until the SRB first stage burned out.

Altair lander design. Edited December 1, 2013 by Istas

[Death Engineering]

Hehe.. that LES really got out of harms way in a big hurry! Cool deployable rovers, too. Looking great! LMK if I need to update your progress score.