Project Genesis; Long term colonization of Laythe, Jool's moon

[Commissioner Tadpole]

Project Genesis!

As you know, the Southern Provinces of Kerbin and their sponsored space program has launched the sucessful Duna 2 mission as a follow-up to the well-planned-but-stupidly-failed Duna 1 mission, and now has an outpost at Duna, with rovers, a hab. module and a launch pad. However, the government was getting worried, as supplies of Kethane had been running low on their territories. They could open a deal with the Nothern Provinces to keep supplies of Kethane going on, although not for long because the prices would have been expensive.

The heads of the space program set up a reunion in the conference room, where they spoke with the president, who was unable to be present in there, but had an apparition with the conference room's large TV regardless. They were looking for a planetary body capable of hosting a self-sustaining colony, safe and yet within the reaches of the space program. And you don't need a genius or a detective to figure that Laythe was the perfect moon for that.

Wernher Von Kerman: "And, over time, we will slowly but surely build up our Kethane base in Laythe's surface in a Four-phase flight."

Bobak Kerman: "But Wernher, we never made a flight for anywhere past Duna and Eve! In fact, even Eve hasn't had any of our vehicles touch down in her surface. Trekker 3's likely on a solar orbit right now."

Wernher Von Kerman: "We don't have a choice, Bobak. The Mun has alterady been deprived of Kethane by the Nothern Provinces, and the Great Union is trying to claim Minmus. We haven't detected any Kethane on Duna or Ike, and you must be crazy if you're thinking about suggesting an operation on Eve."

Jebediah Kerman: "Yeah, chill down, Bobak! If anything goes wrong, we can try mining on Dres instead! Laythe is just the prime candidate right now due to its oxygen levels."

Bill Kerman(via ComSat): "And if you want, we can resume control of the probes once they make it into Jool. Our signal from Duna isn't one of the strongest, but it can still reach Jool regardless. Especially when Duna is in its apoapsis."

The President: "Very well. Wernher, you have clearance to put Project Genesis into practice. Don't disappoint me, and do it as quickly as possible. We can only afford so much Kethane for fuel from the Nothern Provinces."

After the meeting, the engineers and scientists recieved panfleets indicating the major phases of Project Genesis.

Phase 1: Mapping the Kethane

On Year 2, the Stargazer 1 probe, fitted with two AAAA batteries(sponsored by BATT MAN) and a Kethane scanner will be launched from Kerbin's surface, and will sit there until the Kerbin-Jool window opens. It will inject itself into a direct aerocapture with Jool's upper atmospheric layers to achieve orbit, and then will intercept Laythe, where it will stay in a polar orbit to scan the entirety of the surface for Kethane pockets. After the job is done, it will stay there as a Communication Satellite between Laythe, Kerbin and Duna.

Phase 2: Building the Base

By Year 3, when Jool's second launch window opens, an armada of ships, namely the Habitation module, rovers, airplanes(?) and kethane miners & transporters will be launched from the space center(this phase makes the president cringe), where they will fly to Jool using the same aerocapture manuever on its upper atmosphere, and will each land on a chunk of land on Laythe possessing Kethane, with help from Mechanical Jeb's autopilot manuever.

The only problem with this phase is how the armada will be transferred. Some suggest just docking everything together, but such layout seems hard to make, not to mention the pilots are not experienced with rendezvous. Others suggest just sending everything as an armada, but the thought of juggling several ships at once terrifies the pilots.

Phase 3: Crew Roster, Part One

At around Year 4, the rocket carrying the first three crew will be sent to Laythe. It's going to be the first manned flight to the Joolian system, but since it's only going to happen after the experience with Phases One and Two, nobody is particularly worried with it(except Archie Kerman, but he's always worried).

Again, using the MechJeb autopilot, the ship is going to land on the specified base's area, where the brave kerbonauts will head on for the habitation module. If the rocket lands too far from the destination, the rovers can simply drive to the landing site and carry the kerbals to the base. Afterwards, they will begin the mining operation.

Phase 4: Crew Roster, Part Two

Of course, three crew is not enough to maintain an operational base, and is ridiculous for when the planned hab. module can support 14 kerbals. Another rocket, possessing 7 kerbals this time, will fly to Laythe, to finish the population in Jool's innermost moon, and marking the furthest space adventure the Southern Provinces ever had.

Of course, such an experiment needed a powerful transfer vehicle, but the engineers had alterady worked on the Jool-1 rocket, meant to transport light payloads such as probes. Packing 10,965 delta-V, that thing can go places depending on the payload, and it doesn't even use Rockomax parts! (Calm down, Rockomax Conglomerate, we'll use your parts later on. )

[Commissioner Tadpole]

Project Genesis - Part 1

Let's begin small.

At first, everyone thought that this rocket would barely get to the Mun, but everyone was doubting the capacity of the Nuclear Engine. Increased the Delta-V from 6k to 10k instantly.

Regardless, the rocket took off naturally. Since it used Asparagus Staging, the first two boosters were quickly deprived of fuel and ejected quickly, and the rocket resumed ascending, with less thrust but also less weight. At 10k, it began to make the infamous gravity turn. Unfortunately, the second two boosters ran out of fuel in that very moment, forcing the rocket to carry that dead weight along it while making the gravity turn. Fortunately, the rocket remained ascending quickly, and then ejected the dead weight.

Now, it was time to wait until the rocket achieved apoapsis. Every pilot has alterady done it oh so many times, but the tension never escapes. Apoapsis is in T minus 10...9...8...7...6...5! Burn!

Stargazer 1 was now in orbit. But that was just the first half of the flight. The crew at the space center called it a day, and went back to the complex, as the main challenge still awaited - Reach Jool.

...

But there's a problem: You cannot time warp further than 100x under 240km!

But I had the perfect workaround. Using HyperEdit, I warped a plate with a christmas feast into space(for kicks and giggles), and timewarped at max. power until the alarm clocks triggered.

Time for the manuever that nobody on the Southern Provinces dared to do; Joolian transfer. The rocket faced Prograde and burned at max. power. From the map screen, the apoapsis increased rapidly with the LV-T30 engine, only to stop when the liquid fuel was exhausted. The lower stage was detached(where it would now escape Kerbin orbit and orbit the sun forever until it encounters Kerbin again), and the LV-N atomic engine flared into life.

It wasn't too powerful, but boy did it save fuel. I made my orbit intercept Jool's, although no encounter was made. Figuring my orbit was not in the same plane as Jool's, I performed a mid-course correction, and to my surprise, I saw the best words of my KSP playthrough:

Jool Encounter: 248d, 18h, 45m

Both me and everyone at KSC had our jaws dropped.

Archie S. Kerman: *pinches self* "Ow! Wait...it hurt...this actually isn't my 13rd dream of us reaching Jool..."

Soon after, the crew at the space center began to cheer at their first sucessful Joolian injection orbit. Take that, Eve! Woo! But the work is not done yet. We still have to do the precise aerocapture 'round Jool, then get to Laythe. But oh well, we can still enjoy the victory! And I can alterady see Jool from here! But it was getting late at the space center, so they just resumed control to the Duna base.

[Commissioner Tadpole]

Project Genesis - Part 2

Bill Kerman: "Alright, guys, KSC has entrusted us to keep control of Stargazer 1. Watch out for the manuever nodes.

Mitkin Kerman: "Chill out, cap'n. KSC has updated our remote probe controller with a new, improved manuever node manager, so setting nodes will be a breeze!"

And, true to Mitkin's words, I really added in PreciseNode to my KSP configuration. With its help, I set up a Periapsis of 120km, and I'd set in 119,700m if it was able to add in .001 decimals. This is how the orbit and manuever ended:

I noticed there was alterady an alarm clock enabled for the manuever node, so I just timewarped, but the alarm clock just skipped right through the node! Grr. Now I'm glad I set up a quicksave at that point in the orbit, because if not, I'd have lost the mission.

Eventually I managed to get the Jool periapsis at 119.276m. A couple hundread meters below the desired, but hopefully will not cause my craft to go tumbling into Jool's inner atmosphere. And I also noticed that the alarm clock told me that the node was one day away, while in reality it was 7 hours ahead. I removed that false alarm and added in a new one.

I missed the periapsis over there, but thanks to Enhanced NavBall's ability to show Radial nodes, and the thrust limiter from .23, I managed to fix that quickly. Aaand....bullseye!

As you can see, if Jool didn't have an atmosphere, I'd get a Vall encounter along the way, which seems neat, but Vall is not my destination right now. Sorry, Vall, maybe another time! Regardless, the probe approached Jool nearer and nearer, passing near Vall and our future destination. Hello, Laythe!

And here we see a sunrise in Jool's upper atmosphere.

However, at that point I was beginning to get worried, because the power was running out fast. Solar panels clearly would break if I exposed them to Jool's atmosphere at this point. It'd stink to lose the mission because I ran out of eletric charge. Please, Kod, have mercy upon me...

However, fortunately the probe managed to survive with enough power in Jool's upper atmosphere, and now is in an orbit around Jool. Phew. And this is what happened during the aerobrake. The Kethane scanner is all like "I regret nothing!". Or it hates me for placing it right in the front of the probe. Heh.

Now for the final part of this probe; to get into a stable Laythe orbit. I burned prograde until I reached a Laythe encounter(which thankfully didn't need much fuel), and set the periapsis to 42km high. Not that I'm low on fuel, but because I'm low on thrust. A nuclear engine can only do so much, you know. So long, Jool, and thanks for the aerobrake!

However, you know the fact that KSP hates me and would do anything to prevent me from landing on other planets/muns away from Kerbin, Mun and Minmus, right? Well, in this case it magically cancelled out my periapsis(which was sitting in Laythe's atmosphere) and denied me, causing me to head into a straight impact course with Jool. I frantically tried burning at Retrograde, but a NERVA and two LV-1Rs don't have much thrust. Grr.

I decided to press F9 and try another manuever. Since I am alterady skilled with Kerbin -> Mun transfers, I decided to just circularize with Jool, and increase my apoapsis so it reaches Laythe.

However, it was only then that I realized; I was in a retrograde orbit around Jool. Uuuuuuuugh.... I don't know, for some reason my intercept orbits ALWAYS end up as retrograde orbits. And my Laythe intercept is also retrograde. That explains the reason I seemed to be unable to intercept Laythe.

I tried to do the intercept in another angle around Jool, and thankfully an intercept quite easily popped out, and this time I'd end in a prograde orbit around Laythe. Phew. I bet Bop and Pol were just laughing at my failures and eating popcorn together.

Honestly, I never saw Laythe this up-close. Well, I did in the tracking station(where I always thought "One day, I'll reach it..."), but still.

Unfortunately, Laythe decided to troll me yet again, and rejected me.

Laythe: "*DENIED*"

Mallan Kerman: "Oh, come on, it's the third time this happens, alterady!"

You know, I'm beginning to wonder if Laythe is actually Tylo in disguise. I try to aerobrake, but it does nothing. Alright, Laythe, if this is how you want to play, then let's do it.

With a periapsis that low, Laythe has no excuse except to force-land the probe. And honestly, at this point I don't think I care.

And, finally, I have seen some aerobrake flames which shows me that it indeed is not Tylo in disguise.

However, of course Laythe would troll me.

After countless more failures(and laughter moments between Bop, Pol and Laythe), I just gave in and decided to use Alter Baron's aerobraking calculator. It told me that a 18.462km periapsis would yield me a 92km apoapsis around Laythe.

Well, the result was wrong and Laythe tried to swallow me again, but thankfully I managed to keep a 72km apoapsis with assistance of the NERVA.

Mallan Kerman: *wipes forehead* "Gosh...finally, I managed to circularize around this evil, evil thing you call Laythe..."

Bill Kerman: "The job's not done yet, Mallan. Remember, KSC said that the probe should be in a polar, or at least mostly polar orbit around Laythe, so the entire moon can be scanned."

Mallan Kerman: "....God, please help me..."

However, like everything that happens to me on KSP, there was a catch. The probe lacked enough fuel to make it into a polar orbit. Ugh. Well, in this case, I guess the Southern Provinces better not think about mining Kethane on the nothern and southern regions of Laythe. On the bright side, the orbit now was quite inclined, and can scan a wide area constantly...assuming Kethane scanners can reach up to 325km. But even if it cannot, the probe can still scan on the periapsis' side. This is a shot regarding the main probe itself disattaching from the NERVA booster.

And that concludes Phase 1 of Project Genesis! The only thing that stops the scanning is that the Kethane grid seems to be invisible, but once the issue is fixed, the probe will begin the scanning as soon as possible!

Moral of the story: Laythe is an evil, evil thing.

[TimMartland]

Great writing, and a very true moral good luck with finishing your project thing!

[Commissioner Tadpole]

Great writing, and a very true moral good luck with finishing your project thing!

Thanks! I got Kethane to work, but unfortunately Laythe still had a truck under her sleeve; I can't seem to find any Kethane pockets on the islands. The only two kethane pockets discovered so far are located on the middle of the oceans, and I highly doubt kethane drills can work in the water, nor if the Southern Provinces have the technology to launch a navy boat to mine the Kethane in there.

[Cashen]

Good job getting to Laythe. I've still not been there, but that's coming soon I hope. I anticipate not being able to find any Kethane on land at Laythe in my mission reports either, which is why I have plans to set up an orbital base at either Bop or Pol and import it to Laythe orbit to support operations there, just like I import from Minmus to Kerbin.

[KeithStone]

Hooligan labs has some submarine parts so long as its no further than 500 meters below the surface.

[Commissioner Tadpole]

Good job getting to Laythe. I've still not been there, but that's coming soon I hope. I anticipate not being able to find any Kethane on land at Laythe in my mission reports either, which is why I have plans to set up an orbital base at either Bop or Pol and import it to Laythe orbit to support operations there, just like I import from Minmus to Kerbin.

Thanks. And I'm not sure, but I'd recommend doing so in Bop instead of Pol, since the latter's minuscule gravity and sphere of influence makes it tough to reach it, thus requiring more Delta-V.

Hooligan labs has some submarine parts so long as its no further than 500 meters below the surface.

I know, and I considered it for a moment, although I don't know how deep Laythe's oceans are, or if kethane drills work underwater, or even if submarines can host kethane storaging parts at all.

[Cashen]

Thanks. And I'm not sure, but I'd recommend doing so in Bop instead of Pol, since the latter's minuscule gravity and sphere of influence makes it tough to reach it, thus requiring more Delta-V.

The difference between the two moons in terms of delta-V is actually pretty small. Pol takes a little bit more to get to from Laythe and a little bit more to return from, but it also takes quite a bit less to land on and take off from. So the end result is they're about the same. Bop is also in a much more inclined orbit (15 degrees compared to 4 degrees). I think the tie-breaker in my case will be which moon has more easily accessible kethane deposits.

[Commissioner Tadpole]

My main concern over Phase 2 of the project is how I will launch all that hardware. I just can't get Delta-V calculations right(how much I need for an one-way to Laythe, because Stargazer 1 was just a wild guess, and as you know, it ran out of fuel). And I don't know if I should dock everything together or just send it as an armada. I don't know what design I should use to dock all things together, but on the other hand I am afraid of ships disappearing once I aerobrake in Jool.