Project "Hades" (Picture heavy!)

[Tokay Gris]

"Hades" - another name for the death god in mythology. Since "Pluto" - the real world equivalent of Eeloo right now - is still another name for a death god... Hence the name.

Also found on my KSP-blog: http://minionsinspace.wordpress.com

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Right after the success of Mission "Muad'dib", the ever so eager Kerbals at KSC looked for another project.

Checking possible windows to planetary bodies, they discovered that Eeloo would be in a pretty good position in just 35 days. It's inclination would clip into the plane of Kerbin and it would just enter inside of Jools orbit.

So, using the "Muad'dib" and working it over, fixing the problems, modifying the design, they built the "Hades".

This was the first prototype, to be tested in Kerbins orbit.

Since Eeloo doesn't have a moon, there was no need for more than one mapping satellite. And the lander used on Ike could be used with only minor modifications. The Cruiser needed to be heavily modified, though.

It now has four jr. science modules/goocontainers as well as a hitchhiker module. It can't be expected for two brave Kerbals to live in a command capsule for such an extended period of time. Estimated transfer time will be around 300 days, plus the time spend at Eeloo, plus return time.

It also has four additional fuel tanks - in this (first) version without additional engines - asparagus-staged to the main cruiser.

Mission profile reads as follows:

- Single launch from KSC, no refueling planned, so no docking ports (the test version still has them).

- Reach Eeloo just as it enters inside Jools orbit.

- Place a satellite in polar orbit around Eeloo to map the surface, as well as Kethane deposits, if any.

- Land on Eeloo, take scientific readings.

- Ascent and rendezvous with the cruiser again.

- Return to Kerbin.

- Aerobrake and land, if possible at KSC.

This - same as the Duna-Ike-mission - is planned for two Kerbals, even if the crew capacity of the return vessel is six.

Lets see how it goes....

Edited January 21, 2014 by Tokay Gris

[Tokay Gris]

Project "Hades" - Testing Phase

First preliminary tests showed that the conventional ascent stage was not strong enough. The additional fuel could either be put into space separately or a bigger ascent stage was needed.

The decision was made to construct something with more Uumph.

It was ugly, it was heavy... but it got the job done.

After getting an unkerbaled test version into space (and with this testing the ascent stage), the tests for the separate parts commenced.

Since it was unclear how much sunlight would get as far as Eeloo, four nuclear batteries were added close to the nuclear engines, as well as four big solar panels, to be deployed after the lateral fuel nacelles were discarded.

This test also showed that the TWR of the vessel was too low and more engines were needed.

This lead finally to the final and real vessel "KSV Hades", here just before launch on the pad.

[Tokay Gris]

Project "Hades" - Liftoff and first Mission report

The complete vessel weight in on the launchpad just over 1300 tons and spurred 22500 KN of thrust.

Kerbonauts Jebediah Kerman and Bob Kerman safely seated just in the middle of it.

Jeb jokingly described the "Hades" as "just short of an atomic bomb".

(Which resulted in a thoughtful face of one of the engineers. "Hm... that might be an idea... we could actually use atomic bombs" and frantic drawing on a napkin)

Liftoff was regarded as a success since no parts actually fell off.

LKO was obtained and after some fine tuning the moment of the ejection burn drew near.

Again, some of the remaining ascent stage could be used for the start of the ejection burn.

After "brennschluß", it was decoupled and left to drift out of Kerbins SOI.

At this point, there was no clear intercept with Eeloo, but since the inclination would be pretty much within the ecplictic a minor course correction some 100 days into the transfer was expected.

After leaving Kerbins SOI, scientific measurements were taken and the data taken out of the modules by EVA.

[Tokay Gris]

Project "Hades" - Mission report

During the correction burn - which was just as expected as low as 100 m/s - the first lateral fuel tanks ran empty and were dropped.

300 days after leaving Kerbin, the injection burn at Eeloo was scheduled and executed. As expected, just below 1900 m/s and the "Hades" established a firm orbit around the little planet.

[Tokay Gris]

Project "Hades" - Mission report

The next step of the project was to put a satellite in a polar orbit around Eeloo.

The satellite itself proved to be not balanced properly, due to the pretty inaccurate weight data the manufacturer gave for the sensory equipment.

By reducing the thrust to 40%, the gimbals of the satellite were enough to compensate for the imbalance.

The satellite was put into an polar orbit 250 km above the planet and mapping began.

The elevation scan was finished pretty quickly:

The Kethane mapping took a little longer, but showed some adequate kethane deposits near the equator to be used for future missions and eventual colonization.

[Tokay Gris]

Project "Hades" - Mission report - Landing on the surface

After mapping was completed and a landing site was chosen, Commander Jebediah Kerman transferred to the landing vessel...

...and decoupled it from the main cruiser.

After putting in a sufficient distance between the lander and the cruiser, the deorbit burn was initiated.

For a landing site, a spot that was not covered by Eeloos ice was chosen in order to get data from the actual rock of the planet. This site proved to be not exactly level, but the lander stayed upright despite the slope of the spot.

Data was then extracted from the science modules, since they would stay on the surface and keep transmitting data.

The solar panels did provide enough energy to keep the batteries at full, despite the distance to Kerbol, so that the next mission can be done without the use of nuclear batteries.

After all was done that could be done on the surface, Jebediah Kerman lifted off from the surface again to rendezvous with Bob Kerman in the orbiting cruiser.

As with mission "Muad'dib", the ascent capsule does not have any docking abilities. After getting in an adequately close orbit to the cruiser, the Kerbonaut has to exit the capsule, extract the data and then transfer to the cruiser with his jetpack.

Edited January 21, 2014 by Tokay Gris

[Tokay Gris]

Project "Hades" - Mission report - return to Kerbin

The problem of a mission to a highly inclined planet is that the return trajectory would either be also highly inclined or the stay at the planet would take half of its orbital period around Kerbol. Which in case of Eeloo would mean a stay of more than 900 days.

It was decided to rather risk the problem of an inclined trajectory than stay that long that far out.

The next window for this trajectory was 90 days after arrival at Eeloo. The additional science modules were decoupled to ready the vessel for the long way home.

The Eeloo ejection burn was 1750 m/s. During this burn, the second lateral nacelles ran empty and were decoupled without much hassle. They however came in contact with the nuclear batteries. Since the TWR of the cruiser was low, no damage occurred.

Some 200 days after leaving Eeloo, a surprisingly low correction burn (450 m/s) was necessary to intercept Kerbin.

The trajectory would bring the "Hades" on an intercept course with Kerbin from quite a bit below the plane of the orbits. A rather deep aerobrake maneuver was expected.

Surprisingly, the aerobrake was not as bad as expected. A perigee of 28,5 km in the atmosphere was enough to get the "Hades" into an orbit around Kerbin.

Since the "Hades" had quite a lot of delta-V left, it was decided to aim for KSC. After some orbital maneuvers (a large plane change), KSC was targeted and landing was initiated.

As with mission "Muad'dib", the remaining fuel tank and the engines were decoupled after opening of the parachutes to lithobrake at KSC.

Landing was then smooth with 4 m/s.

[Tokay Gris]

Project "Hades" - Conclusion and Summary

Status: All primary and secondary mission objectives were completed!

Findings:

- A mayor Kethane-deposit is right on the equator of Eeloo and can be used for further missions and eventual colonization.

- If using a transfer window that will reach Eeloo just in the plane of ecliptic, the delta-V requirements are surprisingly low.

- The power requirements that far away from Kerbol can be met with solar panels.

Suggestions for further missions:

- If this configuration is used, the nuclear batteries need to be placed differently. Although no damage occurred, it is not good to let big engine nacelles "crash" into nuclear equipment.

- Nuclear batteries are not in fact needed. They are - however - useful on satellites.

- Return trajectories far outside the plane of ecliptic are possible, if careful aerobraking maneuvers are executed.

Summary:

- Lifting stage: It is ugly, but it works. Payload to mass ratio, however, is abysmal. It leaves room for improvement.

- Engine nacelles: Success. They work and provide enough TWR to keep the burn times (especially the first ejection burn) in manageable range.

- Science: In this configuration, there are more than enough science modules on board for solitary planets. Two were actually discarded unused.

- Landing at KSC: The new deorbiting configuration with a crew capability of six (this time used only for two) works and can be used for future return objectives.

Conclusion:

Project "Hades" was a full success!

[Tokay Gris]

Aftermath:

Mission Control: "Hey, guys!"

Jeb: "Yes?"

Bob: "I have a bad feeling..."

MC: "You know how we said that this lander of yours was way overpowered?"

Jeb: "Yeees?"

Bob: "Oh no...."

MC: "We juggled some numbers...."

Jeb: "Yeeeees?"

Bob: "Oh please, no...."

MC: "Well, we figured it could go another place and successfully launch from there."

Jeb: "Sounds great. Where and when?"

Bob: "I am going to be sick..."

MC: "Well... Like I said, we juggled some numbers and we think it can manage Moho."

Jeb: "Great! When do we leave?"

Bob: "I am not feeling too well."

MC: "Head right over to the launchpad. Window for a good launch to Moho is in 30 minutes."

Jeb: "Fantastic! Lets go!"

Bob: *turns greener than he already is*