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Apollo/KSP Discussion Thread

John FX

By John FX
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John FX

John FX

Posted
Posted

Recently MajorJim suggested the idea of an Apollo thread `to discus bits n bobs` and I thought it was a great idea so I have started this thread to discuss Apollo, recreating it in KSP and bits n bobs.

This is not a thread for serious heavy technical examination/disection of the Apollo landings.

It is a more fun thread for people who wish to recreate their version of Apollo and chat about various aspects of the mission and share techniques for building your own Apollo mission (something every KSP player should do at least once I think).

Apollo builders of all abilities are welcome. Please ask any questions especially the ones you may think are silly, sometimes the silliest questions get you to rethink something familiar and something new comes out of it.

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Johnno

Johnno

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Posted

I'm a huge fan of Apollo, here's some of the stuff I've done so far, I've yet to dedicate heaps of time to create something that's extremely accurate though (like Mulbin's). I've been very happy with the rover, pretty much 100% set, except posting these pictures I realized the dish antenna's been changed. Thinking I'll have to add the old one to my install just for looks on the rover. CSM and lander get weaked between missions really, the rover I can build from memory by now.

Rover

qWTejsb.jpg

ppvo7Xa.jpg

CSM

hX9j6i0.png

Lander

BjAU1Xk.jpg

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John FX

John FX

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Now that is a nice rover. Here is the one I have. I don`t think I can reduce my lander without reducing my rover now (which I am loathe to do)

9GjnUDr.png

I like the way yours has the chairs lower down. Does that help with keeping the centre of gravity low?

I may add a dish to mine again on the side, it used to be on the back but there was not room

EDIT : I know what you mean about the new dish, I loved the size and look of the old one for rovers, had a real NASA feel to it.

Edited by John FX
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Camelotking524

Camelotking524

Posted
Posted (edited)

Beautiful Mun Buddy Johno! Umm...can I get a craft file :)

Also, I did two albums of my Apollo like trip. But the trick is, I used the hull cam mod to take the pictures.

<iframe class="imgur-album" width="100%" height="550" frameborder="0" src="http://imgur.com/a/qxRfD/embed"></iframe>

<iframe class="imgur-album" width="100%" height="550" frameborder="0" src="http://imgur.com/a/zUTiW/embed"></iframe>

Edit: I just noticed there is not picture of the launch vehicle. So I fixed that

6hlalPf.png

Edited by Camelotking524
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Scarecrow88

Scarecrow88

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Although my full Apollo style craft doesn't look much like the Apollo vehicles, and uses asparagus staging for efficiency, it pretty much follows the flight profile and is fun to fly. I especially like the lander I did. Again, it's not a replica of the Apollo lander, being quite a bit smaller and is only for 1 person, but it is 2 stage to give that authentic feel.

15_1.png

15_7.png

15_8.png

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Majorjim!

Majorjim!

Posted
Posted (edited)

Thanks John FX for starting this thread. I am far too forgetful sometimes!

I would love to see peoples Mun Apollo vehicles. Launcher and all. If anyone is having trouble with ship construction or the mission particulars,

Feel free to post them here along with anything and everything to do with Apollo in KSP.

So, Apollo. In KSP.

I agree with John FX that recreating an Apollo mission in KSP is something everybody should try. It will teach you everything you need to learn to get the hang of planetary returns. Craft creation, Launches, orbits, staging, docking, landing, rendezvous. The Apollo mission has it all! A fine test for any budding

Kerbonaught.

I have seen many, many different Apollo ships on these forums. From very basic to very complex. I think we can all agree that the top of the list is Mulbins Munbug.

Given the limits of stock parts its about as close to looking like the real thing as is possible. So, my point is that do people prefer to have a realistic looking craft or a Kerbalized Apollo ship?

Is it simply the time it takes to make something complex put people off trying it? I say this as as far as I can remember, Munbug is the only realistic looking stock Apollo Ive seen.

If there are others please please post them here.

Anyway, enough rambling.

Have at it chaps.

MJ

P.S

Great rover Johnno! I love the seating position, low like that. Nice work.

Edited by Majorjim
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Don Quixote

Don Quixote

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Posted

Great thread! For me, reading several books on Apollo (as well as other US and Soviet space programs) has greatly helped me understand and appreciate the techniques involved in an Apollo-style-mission. in KSP, technically it's easier to build a simple one-stage-craft (not counting the launch vehicle) without the need for a separate command/service moudule and lander. However, after you have worked out the basics of orbital maneuvering and landing, a more complex mission is much more fun.

I've not really tried to recreate an actual Apollo mission, but in an attempt to build a small-ish vehicle capable of reaching Duna without NERVAs, I've uninentionally built a craft which has a mission profile almost identical to Apollo. It seemed to be the most efficient way to complete the mission, I only noticed the similaties later.

Mission Profile:

-3-stage-launch vehicle

-3rd stage accelerates spacecraft to reach the Mun on a free-return-trajectory

-CSM separates from 3rd stage, rotates 180° and docks with the lander which is stored above the 3rd stage

-combined CSM & Lander execute orbital insertion burn

-Rover lands on the surface remote-controlled [to avoid a huge lander, the heavy rover (about 2.5t) needs to be landed separately. A lighter one could be attached to the lander though]

-Two Kerbonauts switch to the lander vehicle, one stays in the CSM

-lander undocks from CSM and lands on the surface

-kerbonauts have fun on the Mun and ride the rover

-lander lifts off, rendezvous with the CSM

-CSM completes docking with the lander

-Kerbonauts move to the CSM, the lander is jettisoned

-CSM accelerates to return to Kerbin

-command module separates from the service module and reenters, then splashes down in the ocean.

CkfvkoV.jpg

IpwmuYA.jpg

One of the hardest things to do in KSP for me is attaching a rover to a lander - the only half-decent looking solution I've been able to come up with is this:

yVfJ8er.png

I'd really like to see how other people have solved this problem. It would be great if you guys could post some screenshots of your lander-rover combinations.

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John FX

John FX

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  • Author
Posted (edited)
Thanks John FX for starting this thread. I am far too forgetful sometimes!

I would love to see peoples Mun Apollo vehicles. Launcher and all. If anyone is having trouble with ship construction or the mission particulars,

Feel free to post them here along with anything and everything to do with Apollo in KSP.

So, Apollo. In KSP.

I agree with John FX that recreating an Apollo mission in KSP is something everybody should try. It will teach you everything you need to learn to get the hang of planetary returns. Craft creation, Launches, orbits, staging, docking, landing, rendezvous. The Apollo mission has it all! A fine test for any budding

Kerbonaught.

I have seen many, many different Apollo ships on these forums. From very basic to very complex. I think we can all agree that the top of the list is Mulbins Munbug.

Given the limits of stock parts its about as close to looking like the real thing as is possible. So, my point is that do people prefer to have a realistic looking craft or a Kerbalized Apollo ship?

Is it simply the time it takes to make something complex put people off trying it? I say this as as far as I can remember, Munbug is the only realistic looking stock Apollo Ive seen.

If there are others please please post them here.

Anyway, enough rambling.

Have at it chaps.

MJ

P.S

Great rover Johnno! I love the seating position, low like that. Nice work.

I think it depends how strict you are on `stock` and how important the balance is between appearance and performance. My lifter for example uses only two mods (stretchy tanks and procedural fairings) but my CM and lander are totally stock. Munbug has a stock realistic looking Saturn Rocket but the launch profile you have to follow is nothing like the Saturn rocket. That said he has done an amazing job with stock but the weight that stock adds when you make fairings means 10 engines in the first stage and so forth to keep up the TWR and a part count around 1000 which excludes a lot of people from using it on their machine.

Javascript is disabled. View full album
I'd really like to see how other people have solved this problem. It would be great if you guys could post some screenshots of your lander-rover combinations.

lWaWhen.png

I didn`t have much room...

Edited by John FX
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Sapphire

Sapphire

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Posted

If it's worth anything, this is a pic from my brief Apollo program. The design has been scrapped now though. The service module (now updated) is the workhorse of my program, but the lander was phased out for being really bad. The struggle to get it back into munar orbit was horrible!

XCL4Ee3.png

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John FX

John FX

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Well, while I don't have any amazing albums, I hosted a challenge a while ago to reproduce a apollo style mission.

It's called "Doing it Apollo style" and it has over fourty entries, some of them pretty amazing.

In a strange way it is that very thread that has lead to this thread. I have still not stopped updating my entry...

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kiwi1960

kiwi1960

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Posted

While this really has nothing to do with KSP, I thought I'd mention the most amazing thing about the Apollo program...

The fact that computers in those days were .... crap... to put it mildly. The fact they even got to the moon, let alone, land on it was a feat in itself.

As and example, they were so slow and lacked RAM and bandwidth to transmit the data, that while landing, the computer over loaded and couldn't keep up, they had to revert to manual landing...

I'm also told that because of the drastic nature of space, even now, the computers they use on all probes are comparable to the old 386 type computers.....

Yes, they were brave men... their craft were cutting edge, but today, it seems like they tried to get atop Mount Everest in a Model T Ford... and dammit, they did it.

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FellipeC

FellipeC

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Posted
If it's worth anything, this is a pic from my brief Apollo program. The design has been scrapped now though. The service module (now updated) is the workhorse of my program, but the lander was phased out for being really bad. The struggle to get it back into munar orbit was horrible!

This is a neat capsule. I do recognize the B9 RCS ports, but the capsule I don't. What mod did you use?

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zekes

zekes

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I went for a simplistic one- all these ships must be really complex The Sarah III is less than 100 parts, can take off from anywhere on Kerbin, and works like Apollo.

http://i.imgur.com/sTD5Ety.png

http://i.imgur.com/6JnONSN.png

http://i.imgur.com/GikP3Ba.png

http://i.imgur.com/veJ5IyN.png

http://i.imgur.com/o5koGKJ.png

http://i.imgur.com/BQdOLve.png

http://i.imgur.com/BD6Yvmp.png

http://i.imgur.com/uKdRL5y.png

Edited by Johnno
Swapped images to links
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Johnno

Johnno

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Posted
I went for a simplistic one- all these ships must be really complex The Sarah III is less than 100 parts, can take off from anywhere on Kerbin, and works like Apollo.

*Moderator hat on*

zekes please be considerate and use a gallery if you want to post a bunch of images, especially since those are on imgur. Your post was rather bloated in size.

*Moderator hat off*

That doesn't look like Apollo at all and the only similarity is that there's docking involved and that the lander is separate. You don't have 3 crew, nor a 2 stage lander, and you seem to be launching predocked with the lander upside down. There are indeed low partcount solutions for most things, but this thread is intended for replica or similarity crafts, not just posting random manned Mün missions.

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