Space Exploration Agency [pic hvy] - Fictional story of human space flight

[SFJackBauer]

Space Exploration Agency (logo pending)

SEA (Space Exploration Agency) is a international, non-profit organization dedicated to observe, understand and ultimately colonize space for the benefit of all humankind.

Background

Rocketry has just been invented, and a large space center has been built to provide the needed infrastructure to commence space operations. However since this is a voyage into the unknown, a step-by-step approach must be taken to minimize risks. After all, although standing as a joint-global initiative, SEA has limited physical and human resources.

The humankind has observed the heavens for a long time. They have a good knowledge of orbital mechanics, mathematics and classical physics. However they have no knowledge of how could be possible to live outside the protection of Earth. Gladly they have put aside their philosophical and ideological differences to pursue the greater goal of expanding into space.

Agency Policies

The Agency believes that the Space Exploration should not conflict with the conservation of the Planet and the well-being of its inhabitants. Therefore, the Board of Directors has drafted the following environmental and safety policies:

- No use of nuclear-powered devices in the atmosphere up to a radius of 100,000km from Earth.

- Every effort must be undertaken to not pollute the Earth orbit with debris.

- Spent first stages must be discarded at a distance of at least 20km from KSC.

- (more to come)

Edited November 15, 2013 by SFJackBauer

[SFJackBauer]

Executive Roadmap (subject to change)

1. Expand scientific knowledge of LEO

1.1 Implement a Near Space Network for tracking and control of spacecrafts.

Done

1.2 Establish an Earth scientific monitoring satellite array.

Done

1.3 Determine methods to safely retrieve objects from space into Earth surface.

2. Research effects of spaceflight in humans

2.1 Safely send and retrieve humans into Earth's orbit

2.2 Conduct long-duration research of manned spaceflight

3. Explore the Moon

3.1 Expand NSN (Near Space Network) to bring the Moon into comm range

Edited November 23, 2013 by SFJackBauer

[SFJackBauer]

Missions

Completed

- US-1 - Send instruments satellite to Earth orbit. - Success

- UX-2 - Certification flight of RL-3 launch vehicle. - Success (results)

- UI-3 - Station a communications relay satellite in a geo-stationary orbit. - Success (results)

- UI-4 - Extend the array of geosat comm satellites. - Success

- US-5 - Launch an Earth-mapping satellite in a highly-inclined polar orbit. - Success (results)

- US-6 - Establish an Earth and space weather monitoring program. - Success

Underway

<none>

Planned

- US-? - Launch and retrieve a scientific satellite in a inclined orbit.

Mission ID codes

U - Unmanned

M - Manned

S - Science

R - Resupply

C - Crew change

I - Infrastructure

X - Experimental

Edited November 23, 2013 by SFJackBauer

[SFJackBauer]

Astronaut Roster

Active

<none>

Retired

<none>

Deceased

<none>

Edited November 9, 2013 by SFJackBauer

[SFJackBauer]

Infrastructure

Spaceports

- KSC (Earth)

Orbital stations

<none>

Surface bases

<none>

Satellites

- US-1 (Earth, 200km equatorial orbit) - inactive

- CSAT-1 (Earth, GEO, 37º W) - active

- CSAT-2 (Earth, GEO, 51º E) - active

- CSAT-3 (Earth, GEO, 145º E) - active

- CSAT-4 (Earth, GEO, 125º W) - active

- EarthSAT-1 (Earth, 430km, 87º) - active

- MeteoSAT-1 (Earth, GEO, 46º E) - active

- MeteoSAT-2 (Earth, GEO, 142º W) - active

Edited November 23, 2013 by SFJackBauer

[SFJackBauer]

KSP-related info

Restrictions

- No abuse of reaction wheels.

- Plausible rockets and aircraft.

- <TBD>

Mods used

Realism Overhaul 1

Planets

- RealSolarSystem 5.2

- UniverseReplacer 4 (only for a better skybox)

- Clouds & City Lights 5.2

Propulsion

- ModularFuelSystem 3.3

- StretchyTanks 6

- KWRocketry 2.5.2 + texture redux

- AIES Aerospace 1.4.2

- Hakari SSSRB replica

- TACFuelBalancer 2

- Soviet Engines Pack 1.0

Aerodynamics

- Deadly Reentry 3

- FAR 0.10

- B9 Aerospace 4.0c + texture redux

- ProceduralWings 0.5

- Procedural Fairings 2.4.2

Command and Control

- RemoteTech2 1.2.7

- MechJeb 2.1.0.102

- DockingPortAlignment 2.11

- Flight Recorder 2013/10/21

Science

- SCANsat b4

- SCANsat antennae 0.2c

- HullCamera 0.2.7.1 (for telescopes)

Crew

- CrewManifest 0.5.5.0

Infrastructure

- KerbalJointReinforcement 1.4.21

- Active Memory Reduction 1

- FusTek station modules 0.03.5a

- InfernalRobotics 0.8b

- KAS 0.4.4

Hangar

- EditorExtensions 0.6

- PartCatalog 2.1

- RCSBuildAid 2

- SelectRoot oct17

Edited November 23, 2013 by SFJackBauer

[SFJackBauer]

US-1 - Send instruments satellite to Earth orbit

Mission Briefing

Primary goals

- Launch a scientific package to LEO. It should be active for at least two orbits, to measure radiation flux all around Earth and return data to KSC during overflight.

Secondary goals

- Validate operation of the RL-1 kerosene/MMH-fueled launch vehicle.

- Test radio communication facilities of KSC supplied by RemoteTech inc.

Payload

- US-1 satellite - 270kg, 4h lifetime under batteries

Launcher

- RL-1 Rocket

Mission Results

Success!

The rocket was launched into a high-altitude initial trajectory to assure line-of-sight radio contact with KSC until the final orbit insertion burn. First stage burnout occurred at 2m29s into the flight, at an altitude of 65km and 2,414m/s speed. Stage separation and fairing separation went as planned, as well as the second stage ignition 6 seconds later, burning MMH/N2O4.

The vehicle continued to ascend, but the second stage didn't throttled down as planned to limit acceleration to 5g as the vehicle mass decreased. This caused concern as the telemetry indicated the longitudinal loads reached 10g at the second stage burnout, at an altitude of 249km and 7,702m/s speed, 5m37s into the flight and 1,650km downrange from KSC. At this point the apogee and perigee values were 295km and 23km, respectively.

Fortunately the US-1 satellite survived the incident, and its single, MMH/N2O4-fuelled orbital engine, ignited 15 seconds later, to raise its perigee above the Earth's atmosphere. The burn lasted for 42 seconds, putting the spacecraft into its final orbit of 560x230km.

The US-1 satellite.

Launch!

RL-1 rocket during ascent.

Fairing separation.

Second stage firing.

Second stage separation.

Orbital insertion.

Moments before loss of tracking signal from KSC.

Edited November 9, 2013 by SFJackBauer

[Captain_Party]

Loving it so far!

[SFJackBauer]

Next steps

Following the success of the US-1 satellite, several possibilities and challenges opened up. The most immediate were:

- Expand the assets available to track missions further away from KSC, either by ground or space-based vehicles. This is the number one priority.

- Launch of further scientific satellites towards Earth scanning and monitoring, for example weather observation satellites. This is not related to the short-term plans of space exploration, but this knowledge could prove to be invaluable in future planetary missions. Also this would continue securing support from the scientific community.

- Perform a launch and recovery mission, to increase knowledge in the manufacturing of heat-resistant materials and re-entry procedures.

Therefore new missions were planned having these goals in mind.

[SFJackBauer]

Actually, I'm a bit unsure if the first commsat should be put in GEO, since I don't know if the trajectory will leave the craft with line of sight to KSC until the circularization... Maybe I need first some satellites in lower orbits? Time to study a bit...

[SFJackBauer]

Here are the results of my research.

To reach the GEO, we first put the vehicle in the GTO (Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit), which apogee is at the height of GEO (35,786km). Once it reaches the apogee, the satellite does its "apogee kick", or circularization burn. Therefore the location of the GTO apogee is the final position of the satellite, since once it circularizes, its motion relative to the surface should be near zero.

The GTO is an elliptical orbit which perigee is very low. I will assume that the first stage will propel up to 70km, and then the second stage will level off just outside the atmosphere (105km) to burn as much horizontal as possible to raise the apogee. Therefore the perigee will end up around 200km.

My calculations for the GTO:

- Semi-major axis: 24,364km

- Semi-minor axis: 16,643km

- Eccentricity: 0.73

- Orbital period: 10h 30m

Therefore the flight time from launch to the apogee will be of around 5h 15m, half the orbital period.

Now, the Earth rotates at 464m/s. During the flight time, KSC will move 8,780km to the east. Since each degree of longitude at the equator is 111km wide, it will have moved 80º to the east. The spacecraft apogee, since it is performing a Hohmann transfer, will end up 180º oposite of the burn. Therefore the distance between the spacecraft at apogee and KSC will be of 100º of longitude. Will this be enough to have line of sight?

Well, the answer is no. The spacecraft will have coverage of a bit less than half of the Earth from its vantage point (less than 180º). In order to fall inside this imaginary cone, KSC would have to have moved more than 90º. This means that, another orbit must be found. Back to the drawing board...

(Interestingly, this also means that, for future geostationary launches, in order to position a spacecraft at a specific longitude, the burn must be made 100º west of the desired longitude.)

[Captain_Party]

I'd put a comm sat in polar orbit first, as it would connect to most otger ships and sats during its orbit. Then do a geo-sat.

[SFJackBauer]

I'd put a comm sat in polar orbit first, as it would connect to most otger ships and sats during its orbit. Then do a geo-sat.

Hmm that could work but what are the chances the polar sat will be in line of sight with both KSC and the other sat? I don't know, I think the maths on polar orbits for solving this are still out of my reach

But don't despair, I persisted on the problem and figured out a way: a one-tangent transfer orbit instead of a Hohmann (maths here). But it costs more dV which means SEA will have to procure and test a larger launch vehicle first. Press release coming...

[Captain_Party]

It'd be cool if I could design a LV for you later on down the line

[SFJackBauer]

UX-2 - Certification flight of RL-3 launch vehicle

Mission briefing

Primary goals

- Verify capability of the RL-3 launch vehicle to launch a 3 ton payload into a 200km orbit.

Payload

- Dummy 3 ton payload.

Launcher

RL-3

- Total mass: 160t

- Boosters: 4 solid rockets, 60s burn, 225 kN thrust each.

- First stage: Kero/LOX, 2m 20s burn, 1400 kN single KWRocketry Maverick-V engine (Isp 280s sl).

- Second stage: Kero/LOX, 4m burn, 600 kN dual-nozzle KWRocketry Vesta-VR9D engine (Isp 106s sl, 358s vac).

Edited November 11, 2013 by SFJackBauer

[SFJackBauer]

It'd be cool if I could design a LV for you later on down the line

That would be great! SEA will certainly need a variety of lifters. I'm also open to suggestions regarding new planned missions, I will do my best in fitting them into a logical progression.

[Captain_Party]

That would be great! SEA will certainly need a variety of lifters. I'm also open to suggestions regarding new planned missions, I will do my best in fitting them into a logical progression.

Whats your mod setup? Is there any particular type of LV you like? Solid boosters, Liquid boosters, single stack, Solid first stage, double liquid core stage?

(Delta IV)

[SFJackBauer]

Whats your mod setup? Is there any particular type of LV you like? Solid boosters, Liquid boosters, single stack, Solid first stage, double liquid core stage?

(Delta IV)

The mod list is in first page, this post. But basically StretchyTanks or KW with MFS would be ok, but since this is for Space Exploration Agency, and keeping inline with the fact they are in the early-ish days of space exploration, this would mean some technologies wouldn't be available to them, like:

- Cryogenic fuel tanks and engines - this limits pretty much the first and second stages to kerosene, and the orbital stages to MMH/N2O4.

- Restartable/throttleable engines - I'm not throttling/restarting engines during launch or orbit - exception to this are obviously the orbital hypergolic (MMH/N2O4) engines.

- Reaction wheels - I'm using zero reaction wheels, so the only steering must be from the engine gimbals, aero surfaces and RCS.

- MFS Tech levels - I dont want to abuse this much so I am using the lowest tech level possible for now.

Also leaving some fuel margin for deorbiting stages, whenever possible.

So hmm, what about this as a challenge, designing a 10-ton-to-200km lifter using the above constraints? I think the RL-3 I showed above can be extended to maybe 5 or 6t in the future, so this I have covered already. And it will be a while before SEA needs a 10 ton lifter, so it gives time to play with ideas.

[SFJackBauer]

UX-2 - Certification flight of RL-3 launch vehicle

Mission Results

Success!

The test flight demonstrated the capability of the RL-3 launcher to deliver a 3t payload to a 200km orbit. It accomplished this with a 700m/s deltaV margin. However after vehicle operation several improvements were requested to the manufacturer:

- Deorbit capability - The Agency strives to keep the space clean of debris. This need the possibility of remote controlling the upper stage, and also demands a small RCS system to maneuver the upper stage into orbit.

- Finer control for orbital insertion - The Vesta-VR9D upperstage engine is very powerful, but not yet throttleable. This limits the finer control required to adjust the orbital parameters. The solution proposed by the manufacturer was the installation of small vernier thrusters, with restart capability, to be used during orbit circularization and, for deorbit, since the main engine is also not-restartable. This is need since the orbit insertion is done in a single burn, to maintain line of sight with KSC.

- The joints between the first and second stage demonstrated some unplanned flexibility, but the manufacturer assured it is within limits and that the vehicle is structurally sound.

RL-3 launcher sitting on the pad the night before the test.

Liftoff!

Booster separation.

First stage burnout.

Second stage burning.

Edited November 16, 2013 by SFJackBauer

[NathanKell]

Oh I am so following this.

Looks awesome!

(You had the same thought as me--I'm restarting KATO on Earth...)

A tip on GTOs: as long as your perigee is above the atmosphere, you needn't fire your kick stage at first apogee; with an irrational period you'll eventually end up over KSC at apogee, it just may take quite a few orbits.

A note on tech levels: at the bottom of the MFS readme I lay out the rough time correspondence for TLs. If you're going for that Space Race feel, I suggest TL2-3, with some early stuff at TL1 and some late stuff at TL4 (aka 1968-1972). TL0 is really World War 2 / postwar level; I really wouldn't like to try to orbit with it (although I was trying to make a TL0 single-stage ICBM once, ouch.) Another tip on techlevels: you might want to keep your hypergolic TL about one behind for orbital stuff, to represent the performance loss in pressure-fed engines.

You also might want to look at Engine Ignitor; I'm going to write MFS interoperability for MFS v4, but you can certainly use it now...

[SFJackBauer]

Oh I am so following this.

Looks awesome!

(You had the same thought as me--I'm restarting KATO on Earth...)

A tip on GTOs: as long as your perigee is above the atmosphere, you needn't fire your kick stage at first apogee; with an irrational period you'll eventually end up over KSC at apogee, it just may take quite a few orbits.

A note on tech levels: at the bottom of the MFS readme I lay out the rough time correspondence for TLs. If you're going for that Space Race feel, I suggest TL2-3, with some early stuff at TL1 and some late stuff at TL4 (aka 1968-1972). TL0 is really World War 2 / postwar level; I really wouldn't like to try to orbit with it (although I was trying to make a TL0 single-stage ICBM once, ouch.) Another tip on techlevels: you might want to keep your hypergolic TL about one behind for orbital stuff, to represent the performance loss in pressure-fed engines.

You also might want to look at Engine Ignitor; I'm going to write MFS interoperability for MFS v4, but you can certainly use it now...

W00t you have a story going on... how the hell I never noticed the link in your sig? I don't know what to say... I skimmed through it and looks fantastic. I will certainly catch up.

(Sidenote - you must have four hands and two heads, that's for sure.)

About the GEO orbit: see next post

About the rest - yeah I will follow your tips, even though I didn't had the idea of making the space race... more like an alternate reality with the entire world united. But I am keeping everything as low tech as possible to make it hard.

[NathanKell]

Aw, thanks! KATO is now officially ended; I'm about to post the first post of the reboot, Reaching for the Stars: Earth’s Rocket Age. Same background and [similar, improved] story, but (a) prettier rockets, ( MOAR REALISM, and thus © no more fake names. By the time serious business starts I hope to have an actual earth texture and heightmap, even.

You know, the whole making-of-realism mods as my schtick actually grew out of KATO; I gradually got more and more invested in having my KSP as real as possible (and, re ST and PF, having the right textures for my rockets) and I started modding myself...

I meant space race as era of tech, not as geopolitical setting. I get that you have a totally different historical background but I took your comments about TL as regarding the kind of rocketpunk feel you wanted.

(KATO, and now RFTS is solidly alternate history itself and will eventually see a united world [more or less]; the POD is actually in the US Civil War, these are 90-years-on butterflies)

[NathanKell]

Oh hey, one other thing you might like. Just before I left I edited some parts to realistic values (Solar panels based on Medieval Nerd's work). Estimated date is 1964 for the batteries, and 1962-1980 for solar panels. Grab file from this post:

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/55145-0-22-WIP-Alpha-Real-Solar-System-v5-1-HOTFIX?p=769458&viewfull=1#post769458

Has all batteries and solar panels edited, the RTGs set to real values, the two ballistic pods rescaled to their "real" sizes (and a 4m heatshield and some Mercury parts if FASA is installed), and probes given realistic (i.e. kWHr-class) batteries. Assuming you decrease power usage of all RT2 parts by a factor of ten, then you should get roughly realistic current draw on your probes. (1EC/s = 1kW)

Also, you might want to grab the latest Remotech2 from github; Cilph accepted my pull request for semi-realistic max range behavior (where max range of a link = range_weaker + sqrt(weaker*stronger) ) and multiple antenna support. (Set range mode Additive in RT2 settings.cfg) Should probably set the range multiplier to 10x, too.

[borisperrons]

Well, so many good AARs in such a short time! You guys make me feel very proud of playing the same game as yours.

Maybe I'm a bit late, but i've got a suggestion for the GTO sat: you can launch a satellite in a Tundra- or Molnjia-like orbit with a period of 6h (or 24h, if you're using the realism mod) and use it as a relay for sending the burn command to the proper geostationary satellite on the other side of the planet.

[Captain_Party]

Just a little problem for that ten ton lifter. I can't design rockets with these new mods for the life of me. It could be MJ though... what is your ap Jack?

EDIT: Never fear! The MOESCR is here! Been working on some real life inspired designs, been watching *some rocket launches and brushing up on LV design in rl. Been working on a 9-10 ton to LEO launcher with 9600dv with a dummy 11t payload on it, should be enough? Sorta based on Ariane 5 (Really Pretty 5) and after that, thinking of a Delta-IV type launcher, and maybe a 20t Angara-style asparagus launcher. If you don't mind *coughs* "cheating"

*a lot

Edited November 13, 2013 by Captain_Party