Apollo/KSP Discussion Thread

[kenbobo]

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[John FX]

This was my Apollo mission, back in 0.20.

It was interesting how much more focused I was on that, compared to my regular flights to the Mun.

I based it on later Apollo voyages, with some kerbalish twists. You'll see:

Not sure I'll try it again, this one pretty much seemed a full experience to me. But if I did, I'd make my rocket a little different, so the stages were used more correctly, and replace the poodle on the MEM with an LV-909. I only used a small amount of its thrust anyway, as my lander was slighly unbalanced. I was really happy with the way the whole thing looked though.

I didn`t realise there was another Kerpollo (although mine is KerPollo with an emphasis on the exploding Mexican chicken aspect). Looks very good. I may put some ALSEP on mine for the next release which I plan for near Christmas.

[Rune]

Hello there! I've been kindly pointed to leave here my stab at Apollo, so there you go:

It may not look as sleek as the most popular replicas out there, but it has something going for it: less than 250 parts, 230 to be exact. The new lander jumped the part number a bit from the previous 200 parts. (I'm that OCD), but it is still very manageable for slow computers. The thing is, I've always liked Apollo replicas. But since I saw Munbug for the first time, I thought I had nothing better to offer people. Since then however, not only has Munbug become wildly popular (first ship that gets stickied and all that), it has also become a lag monster with about 1000 parts. What happens to people with potato computers, they can't get nice toys to play with? Well here I am to change that! But I also wanted the high fidelity and attention to detail that the Munbug family had, of course. And the building tricks! So a few weeks back, in a fit of inspiration, I put all the ideas together, and set about to create an Apollo replica with a tight budget in every way. I think I succeeded! And believe me, I was the first surprised when I noticed this thing actually worked as intended.

We warned, this ship is for players that know their stuff, and has tight margins all around. Just like the real thing! If you find yourself failing with a maneuver, you have probably already have and will have to abort the mission and start thinking up ways to save your kerbals. But now that that's out of the way, the nerdy details. First off, I knew this would be a mass-limited thing. I just couldn't afford more than 10 first stage tanks if I had to keep part count low. So, I had my first inspired idea of the day, and used the skippers as F-1 equivalents. That meant poodles for J-2's, and they actually fit the part quite well. With that, I just had 11 tanks with 11 engines for the whole booster, and I could even afford some fairing eye-candiness. However, a small rocket means a light payload. Then again, NASA also struggled to fit a lunar mission inside the Saturn's V fairing . But by keeping things light and simple (and very tight margins on the lander), we made do, and not one bit of realism suffered for it: as an example, the CM hangs from the fairing, and is not connected to the lander in any way, just like the real thing.

Then of course I came up with a very stupid-looking lander, but some time off the project, a look at the various other apollo replicas out there, and a fit of inspiration about how to put things together, and a newer and much more **** lander came about:

Other than that, the missions keeps on following (obviously) and Apollo-like profile. I performed the Munar sortie from a 10kmx50km parking orbit, but then again, I managed to land on dry tanks. That actually happened, running out of fuel less than five meters from the surface, and on both test missions, with the new and the old lander. Because of math, and science! It was an effficient-ish landing with low T/W, so you might want to go slightly lower and never higher, and know your stuff to do good suicide burns if you try it out.

I hit some snags during development, like landing legs that got lost to the kraken, and a parachute that continued to get ripped apart no matter what. But in the end, thanks to F9 and a bit of ingenuity, all kerbals managed to complete all test missions, and the bugs were ironed out without loss of green. A hugely succesful (and funny!) development program!

The imgur album of the missions, with both the new and the development version:

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The nitty gritty details you can find in its own thread, here.

Rune. We choose to go to Mun, not the easy way, but the hard way!

[ProfessorJeb]

This thread is great! And the crafts here look really good. Got some ideas for my own (K)Apollo mission now.

[Strangelove444]

I was just happy that I was able to do the Apollo-style rendezvous in orbit around the target moon...

And I had my rovers (if I had rovers at the time) just dangling off the side with KAS, ha.

[John FX]

Glad to see the thread raising interest in Apollo replicas. The more people do it the more techniques we all know.

[maccollo]

Did my apollo mission in the real solar system mod with stock components (except for deadly reentry and life support).

The rocket I ended up with massed around 2800 tons on the pad, so it was pretty close to the saturn V. However KSP components are awful compared to the real life counterparts, so I couldn't even launch half of what the saturn V could.

To offset this disadvantage I opted for NERVAS for the transfer stage, and I still had to cram every m/s of delta V that I could from the 26 or so tons I was able to throw at the moon.

[John FX]

Very nice. I`m glad people are doing RSS Apollo missions. Can`t wait to see the first one with accurate engines throughout. It must be frustrating having underpowered engines for RSS.

[Rowsdower]

Good video. I though that syncing the staging with the score was a nice touch.

[Wallygator]

Hello all!

This thread is a great idea. Probably a much better place for my recent Apollo-ish attempt(s).

I previously posted it in mission reports... http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/73134-First-Mission-Post-Apollo-Inspired-Munar-Excursion-Adventure-with-Craft-file

It was never intended to be a look-alike but rather close as I could get with stock and no clipping. Wanted to include a laterally deployed rover for two and a prototype escape system (Highly Optional Top-heavy Munar Escape Support System)

Toughest part for me was getting the equipment bays to deploy correctly.

The Imgur album has most of the specifics embedded.

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I really enjoyed this project. Brought back the passion I felt as child when watching the Gemini/Apollo launches.

Hope you enjoy the pics! And thanks in advance for any commentary.

Cheers,

W

[Whirligig Girl]

I recently made an attempt to create a mini-Saturn V with an Apollo 11 mission reimagination using the 1-man capsule. I tried to be as faithful as reasonably possible in terms of aesthetics and flight profile. Initially designed to be a one-kerbal mission, I decided halfway through "Hey, why not just cram 'em all in there?" and made it a full-on 3-kerbal, bona-fide recreation. Two command chairs are clipped into the CM capsule for the added capacity. I call this baby the Pluto-V, and I'm quite proud.

http://imgur.com/a/raaL7

If this is Pluto 5 I'd love to see how big your Saturn 5 is.

[John FX]

You crammed a lot in there! love your little AntAscent unit

Very nice.