Certamen in Caelo [Picture Heavy] | III: 热 (Heat)

[Captain_Party]

Spatium Genus

A Race To Space

So, this is my new mission report/AAR series, and it's centered around the British and the Chinese, after and alternate history WWII. America has gone bust, Britain has lost India, but not Hong Kong or Australia, and China have taken over Taiwan and Korea. For simplicity, I am doing the different factions in different saves, and each use different mods, for example, China use KOSMOS for space stations and suchlike, and Britain uses FusTek.

I'll post any updates here.

Edited February 17, 2014 by Captain_Party

[Captain_Party]

Infrastructure - Britain

Spaceports

- Woomera Space Centre (Earth)

Orbital stations

-none-

Surface bases

-none-

Satellites

- Athena-1 (Earth, 650km equatorial orbit) - active

- UKSAT-01 (Earth, GEO) - active

- UKSAT-02 (Earth, GEO) - active

- UKSAT-03 (Earth, GEO) - active

Infrastructure - China

Spaceports

- Hainan Spaceport (Earth)

Orbital stations

-none-

Surface bases

-none-

Satellites

- Weixing-1 (Earth, 1500km equatorial orbit) - inactive

- CASAT-1 (Earth, GEO) - active

- CASAT-2 (Earth, GEO) - active

- CASAT-3 (Earth, GEO) - active

- CASAT-4 (Earth, GEO) - active

Edited February 8, 2014 by Captain_Party

[Captain_Party]

Factions

​Britain

- Emphasis on manned space travel

- Invented the Jet Engine

- Low production costs

Uses Greek gods for naming schemes

China

- Leaders in unmanned space travel

- Huge amounts of manpower

- Very short production time

- Medium/High production costs

- Invented first black powder rocket

Uses Chinese folklore for naming scheme

Edited February 8, 2014 by Captain_Party

[Captain_Party]

​British Roadmap

1. Establish knowledge of LEO

1.1 Establish a GEO communications array

1.2 Establish a weather monitoring station in GEO

1.3 Research re-entry heating and ways to combat it

2. Research Human spaceflight and its effects

2.1 Safely send and retrieve humans into Earth’s orbit

2.2 Conduct a long-term, manned stay in LEO

2.3 Conduct a rendezvous and docking between two manned craft in LEO

3. Explore the Moon

3.1 Send a mapping probe to map the surface of the Moon

3.2 Land an unmanned lander on the surface of the Moon

Edited February 1, 2014 by Captain_Party

[Captain_Party]

Chinese Roadmap

1. Establish knowledge of LEO

1.1 Establish a GEO communications array

1.2 Establish a weather monitoring station in GEO

2. Research what it takes to get to the Moon and beyond

2.1 Research gravity assists

2.2 Research new propulsion means

Edited February 8, 2014 by Captain_Party

[Captain_Party]

KSP Info

Both CAA and Britain have their own saves, so as not to interfere with each other.

Restrictions

- No abuse of reaction wheels

- Realistic rockets and aircraft

- No firing of nuclear-propulsion within a 150km radius of Earth.

- No throttling of non-hypergolic fueled engines

Mod List

- StretchySRB v8.1

- Crew Manifest

- KerbalAlarmClock v2.7.0

- RCSBuildAid v0.4.3

- RemoteTech2 v1.3.3

- ProcFairings v2.4.3

- KW Rocketry v2.5.6

- SovietEngines v1.0

- DockingAlignmentIndicator v3.01

- TextureReplacer v0.19

- VisualEnhancements v6.7

- VibraDyn SCANsat Antennae v0.02

- SCANsat b5

- RealFuels v4.1 w/ RftS Engines

- RealismOverhaul v3

- RealSolarSystem v5.5

- KerbalJointReinforcement v.16

May add more...

Edited February 1, 2014 by Captain_Party

[FlamingPotatoes]

Cool! I like this!

[Captain_Party]

At the announcement of a peace treaty to disarm all ballistic missiles, the alliances highly crazed, yet efficient rocket scientists thought this meant a lifetime of begging on the streets of Beijing. Fortunately for them, the alliance announced the creation of CAA's new space agency, which would use the combined knowledge of the scientists involved in the alliances' LRBM program. Since the creation of the first black powder rocket in China, almost five hundred years ago, rocket technology had advanced somewhat. The creation of the Type-01 "Lao-Xing" solid rocket booster, which had been used on all CAA's ballistic missiles after it's creation, was a massive step forward in rocket technology, and had the power to push warheads to the very edge of the stratosphere, with the warhead needing only a little kick at apokee to send it towards the desired target. This of course was very bad news for the British, which had been somewhat behind in rocket technology, but invested huge amounts of money in very long-range bombers, which used jets to accelerate to very high speeds and altitudes, going almost sub-orbital, to reduce time spent in the atmosphere.

There had been many designs put forward for the launch vehicle of this satellite, some of which were just old ballistic missiles with more efficient upper stages and decreased TWR. Finally, the design chosen was an almost all-solid design, with a hypergolic, restartable upper stage, for fine-tuning the orbit. This new design of rocket, which took in many design aspects from old designs of North Korean ballistic missiles, was christened the "Long March" 1A, and was able to carry payloads up to 950kg into LEO. The CAA space program's hard-working and loyal scientists had worked for months on end to produce the world's first orbital satellite. It would have a long range, high gain, extendable antennae, which would help it stay in contact whilst put of the atmosphere. The launch would also be the first launch from the newly-built Hainan Spaceport, constructed especially for space exploration.

This move, of course, greatly annoyed Great Britain.

Payload:

"Weixing-1" LEO Measurement Satellite

Mission Control:

Beijing Space Centre

Vehicle:

"Long March" 1A

Launch Site:

Hainan Spaceport

Objective:

Launch world's first satellite into orbit around Earth. Take measurements of Earth and it's magnetic field, before loss of contact.

Intended Orbit:

250x1500km

Outcome:

Success

T- 00:00:15 - On the launchpad at Hainan Spaceport, with the CAA's flag in the background.

T+ 00:00:03 - Commencing gravity turn. Note the Type-01 "Lao Xing" solid first stage.

T+ 00:01:04 - At the 45-degree mark. Speed: 865.2 m/s

T+ 00:01:30 - MECO. First stage separation and fairing separation.

T+ 00:01:53 - One minute to apokee. Second stage ignition, with a TWR of 0.67

T+ 00:02:35 - Measurements in progress. TWR of 1.03

T+00:02:55 - Second stage sep. service engine ignition. Raise perikee above atmo

T+ 00:03:22 - Last images and data received from "Weixing-1". Loss of signal

Edited January 26, 2014 by Captain_Party

[Captain_Party]

When Great Britain found out about the launch of the CAA's satellite, there were riots in the streets. After years of firsts all over the globe, Britain had failed to set the first step in outer-space. The British governments' cabinet called together a meeting to discuss plans of a new government-funded branch, the Ministry of Space. This newly-formed sector of the government would be in charge of all British endeavors in space and beyond. The government, seeing as the CAA were primarily focused on unmanned space travel, immediately set up a recruiting program for the RAF, to select the cream of the crop for space missions. Of course though, there was no way they would have the newly formed Royal Space Corps. recruits trained and ready within the year, and even the top scientists in the Empire knew only the tiniest amount about space and her properties. So, they too would have to launch an unmanned craft before they sent up a manned mission of any kind.

In terms of rocket technology during the war, Britain had started off quite a way behind the CAA, primarily focusing on it's vast knowledge of aeroplanes, and it's amazing in-atmo propulsion, the Jet Engine. Nevertheless, Britain had seen the effect of rockets as a weapon in the Anglo-Asian war. Britain straight away focused on developing rocket technology, and made the first liquid-fueled rocket, which they first launched at RAF Valley, on the Isle of Anglesey. This proved to be a devastating weapon in the final days of the war, for the main fact that it was far more accurate than the CAA counterpart of a Solid Rocket Booster. Now that the war was over, however, they hoped this technology could be used to great effect in achieving very precise orbits around the planet Earth. In Britain's tests with small sounding rockets, this proved to be quite an accurate hypothesis. But they were just sounding rockets. This, was the real deal.

Also, a new technology had been discovered in Australia, which allowed the charging of spacecraft with the power of the sun. This new technology was christened "Solar Panels". They would be used on the Ministries first spacecraft, "Athena-1". With this ground-breaking technology, Britain hoped to gain the upper hand in this (what the press were now calling) "Space-Race".

Payload:

Athena-1 (LEO observation satellite) - 560kg

Mission Control:

Polaris House

Vehicle:

Titan I

Launch Site:

Woomera Space Centre

Objective:

Launch Great Britain's first satellite into orbit, and gather scientific data.

Intended Orbit:

260x620km

Outcome:

Success

T+ 00:00:07 - Liftoff!

T+ 00:00:28 - Reaching Max Q

T+00:01:47 - Out of the atmosphere, now in the very tenuous layers. First stage still burning.

T+ 00:02:19 - In vacuum. Fairing separation and vernier shutdown for final thirty seconds of burn.

T+ 00:02:49 - MECO

T+ 00:03:01 - Second stage ignition. Antennae activated and deployed.

T+ 00:03:22 - Burning to raise perikee.

T+ 00:03:53 - SECO and payload separation. Solar panels functioning properly.

T+ 00:04:33 - Final orbit after fine-tuning orbital parameters. Athena-1 will send data back to

the Greenwich Astronomical Society for however long it's panels last.

Edited January 26, 2014 by Captain_Party

[NathanKell]

Definitely following this--good stuff! Was sorry to see BSA wither away, great to see you back in action.

Um, can haz daylight launch please? I'd love to see your creations and sadly I can't really make them out at night...

[Captain_Party]

Thanks! I lost interest in the BSA because there was no story, just me launching bloody rockets. I started this because I found a text book of mine from year 7, and it was this story. So yeah. Sorry about the night launch, this was a teeny bit rushed, to sort of show them playing off against each other, and that I was really tired

Cheers, CP

[Captain_Party]

II: We Have Connection!

It was all over the world. Two of the most powerful countries in the world were engaged in a race to the stars. Scientists all over the globe were submitting designs and missions for different types of spacecraft, in the effort to learn as much as they could about the cosmos. But first, Britain knew they had to expand the communication range of mission control. Without this critical range enhancement, the completion of missions would be very hard to do. They would have to complete the circularisation burn in the small cone of comm range that mission control provided.

There was two choices for expanding the range. 1, was using ground-based control stations. There would be one 500 miles downrange from the launch site, and another 500 miles away, as close to the orbital path it could get while staying on terra firma. Alas, this would be less cost-effective than a Geo-Stationary communications array, which would also double as a Earth weather-monitoring station. So, this was the route that the Ministry would take. There was of course the Royal Observatory in London, which would provide control on the other side of the planet.

The launch was scheduled for the 6th of February, 1962, 2 months after the launch of Athena-1. It would be the first launch of the new Titan IIB launch vehicle. This would the standard launch vehicle for all British and commonwealth payloads from 5000kg and over. As the Titan-class of launchers were designed to be fully modular, you could add side-mounted solid rocket boosters to increase the payload capacity of the launcher, from 5000kg up to 7500kg. This would be incredibly useful for keeping costs down.

Payload:

UKSAT-01

Mission Control:

Woomera Space Centre

Vehicle:

Titan IIB

Launch Site:

Woomera Space Centre

Objective:

Launch UKSAT-01 into GEO

Intended Orbit: 35.786x35.786km

Outcome:

Success

T+00:00:00 - UKSAT-01 on the pad, atop the Titan IIB launch vehicle.

T+00:00:01 - Liftoff! UKSAT has cleared the tower.

T+00:00:25 - 60m/s, beginning G-Turn.

T+00:01:02 - Max Q

T+00:02:23 - Fairings dropped, solar panels and long-range antennae deployed.

T+00:03:12 - MECO. Here we see the Minotaur stage maneuvering away from the first stage.

T+00:03:33 - Preparing for GTO over the east coast of Australia.

T+00:04:02 - GTO burn completed. Coasting to apogee.

T+05:02:03 - GEO injection burn completed. We have connection!

NOTE: The completed communications array. As you can see, I have updated to RSS pre v6, and

I've moved the launch site to the actual co-ordinates of the Woomera Space Centre, where

Britain's first, and only, real-life satellite was launched on the Black Arrow rocket. I have also

done the same for the CAA, and moved the launch site to the actual co-ordinates of the Chinese

launch centre.

Edited January 31, 2014 by Captain_Party

[NathanKell]

Looking sharp!

[Wallenberg]

Thank your for the enjoyable read, there'll be quite interesting orbit inclinations to see with the different locations I guess...

[Captain_Party]

@NathanKell Cheers man!

@Wallenberg You bet. On top of the 10km of delta-v needed to get into orbit, if I want another equatorial orbit, it's more delta-v on top of that. We're talking, what? 2/3km inclination changes?

[NathanKell]

Your velocity at geostationary level is very low, comparatively, so plane change burns are cheap, and even cheaper if you do it in combination with your apogee kick burn to circularize. (BTW for some reason it's "injection" for the transfer and "insertion" for when you get there, i.e. GTO injection / GEO insertion, or trans-lunar injection / lunar orbit insertion.)

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geostationary_transfer_orbit for a good description of the apogee kick maneuver.

In fact, for a 40degree+ inclination, you might be best served by a bi-elliptic transfer, like they fly for GEO Proton missions, where you fly into a super-synchronous transfer (like 50,000+km apogee) to get the apogee velocity really low for a cheap plane change, then circularize on the fall back towards perigee.

[Wallenberg]

[...]

I never quite found out to what inclination you launch with minimum dV from a certain latitude, but for 30° it can amount to 3,000+ m/s!

delta-v required = 2 * current orbital velocity * sin( delta-inclination in degrees / 2 ) acc. to Wiki...

[Captain_Party]

II: 我們有連接!

The Chinese were hot on the tail of the British and their new inventions. They too had solar panels, copied from stolen British blueprints, but albeit, through mistakes in translation, they had less efficiency. Nevertheless, the Chinese pressed on to develop their own line of long-range communications equipment.

They decided to go with a octagonal-shape design of satellite, and as the Chinese hadn't actually developed past the normal, surface-attachable solar panels, and as they covered only a small bit of surface area, they had decided that these would encase the fuel tank and the actual probe. The payload would have one extendable dish antennae, and two, small extendable omni-directional antennae.

The launch vehicle itself was somewhat odd-looking. A large, 2 metre KeroLOX first stage, and a rather small, 1 metre second stage. The 'cruise' stage would encase the autopilot system, and would be hidden in the fairing, attached just below the payload. The launch of the first CASAT was scheduled for November 7th, 1962, 9 months after the launch and completion of the British Near Space Network. But, China planned instead to have a

four-satellite system, instead of the British three. This would provide more coverage, and there would also be less signals delay.

Payload:

CASAT-1

Mission Control:

Beijing Mission Control

Vehicle:

Long March 2A

Launch Site:

Hainan Spaceport

Objective:

Launch China's first GEO satellite into orbit.

Intended Orbit:

35.786x35.786km

Outcome:

Success

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Edited February 8, 2014 by Captain_Party

[NathanKell]

Cool!

A question--anything special you did to get the custom flag to appear during launch? It almost never does for me.

Two tips, if I might. First, if you circularize (or at least get both perigee and apogee out of the atmosphere) before heading for geostationary, then you can plan your perigee kick (i.e. GTO injection) for the AN or DN of your orbit. That will put your geostationary apogee at the equator, which means you can combine your apogee kick to circularize and your plane change to get an equatorial orbit into one burn. That's *much* cheaper. Also, as above, you can do a bi-elliptic transfer (and inject into a supersynchronous orbit with a rather-higher-than-GEO apogee) and do your plane change even cheaper than if you were doing it at GEO height. The break-even point is somewhere between 30 and 50 degrees inclination; the Russians do it launching from Baikonur but we don't from KSC.

Second, since it's earth now, not Kerbin, you can use apogee and perigee (gee from geo, aka Earth) rather than the "kee" that was adopted as the gee-equivalent for Kerbin (like apolun and perilun [or aposelene and periselene, depending on if you go Greek or Latin...] for the Moon, and apomun [or whatever] for Mun).

[Captain_Party]

@NathanKell No, it always shows up for me... I wouldn't have a clue why it doesn't run for you... Maybe it's something to do with CrewManifest? I had a problem with that... Also, yeah soz, old habits I guess

[Captain_Party]

Hey readers... Would you prefer if I carry on like this, or instead get rid of RFtS engines and realism overhaul, and use Stockalike Configs without realism rescaled? I've been messing about with that, and it's actually more fun Thoughts?

[NathanKell]

Well, you know what *I* think.

But whatever's fun.

[Captain_Party]

Before anyone gives up on this, heres a little taste of what China is launching in the *far future.

*Not that far.

[Captain_Party]

III: 热

With the establishment of the Geo-Stationary array of satellites, the Chinese Space Agency decided to put it to use. When something is travelling at orbital speeds, when it comes into an atmosphere, it heats up, because the kinetic energy being shed is converted into heat energy. If China were to be serious about sending missions to other, atmospheric planets, they first hand to figure out how to tackle re-entry heating, head on.

Many suggestions were put forward, such as ablative heat-shields, which have layers that peel off, taking energy with it. Or there was the possibility of attaching air brakes just below the parachutes, to help slow down ships through the atmosphere, before the deployment of the parachutes. In the end though, the ablative shield had the most going for it. It was cheap to produce, it was tough, durable, and had been put to great use on Chinese LRBM's during the war.

For the first launch, it was decided to use the old 'Monkey-King' sounding rocket, as it could accelerate the small 250kg probe to 6500 m/s, providing ample heating for the probe to undergo. It was also decided that the first launch would not be fully orbital, but instead raise the apogee to opposite the other side of the planet, and have a low, 15km perigee above the space-centre.

Payload:

Re-Entry Heating and Atmospheric Analysis 1

Mission Control:

Vehicle: '

Monkey-King' Sounding Rocket

Launch Site:

Hainan Spaceport

Objective:

Launch REHAA1 into it's intended orbit, and land near the space centre.

Intended Orbit:

250x15km

Outcome:

Partial Failure

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Edited February 17, 2014 by Captain_Party

[Captain_Party]

Hey, I've managed to get Fraps working for me with minimal lag, but anyone know what I should do to speed up video by 4x ?