Jeb Retires! (Career Total Conversion) [PIC HEAVY!] - DISCONTINUED!

[Taki117]

With the completion of the space hotel looming tickets were going like hotcakes. A week in space, everybody wanted to be the first. Next up on the launch list was both the biggest and heaviest module that would be added to the station.

It was decided to forgo the fairing to eliminate unnecessary debris. The rocket would use a serial onion staging setup. At the appropriate time it lifted skywards into the night.

Immediately prior to the first booster separation it was rolled 90 degrees to facilitate the procedure, then the boosters were jettisoned. The procedure was repeated for the second set of boosters. This prevented any inadvertent collisions that had the potential to destroy the fuselage.

Once the main lifter stage had burned out it was jettisoned and the solar panels were deployed.

The Radiators were also deployed and the module circularized and brought onto a rendezvous trajectory.

Once again, at about 300m the relative velocity was zeroed and the tug sent to pull the module to it's destination.

In order to get the proper orientation the tug was switched from one end to the other, so that the generator would provide some radiation shielding (in addition to what was built into the reactor)

The Module was then docked with the station.

[Taki117]

With the last module on the launch pad the largest crowed Neilbury had ever seen had gathered to watch the final module ascend to the heavens.

"5...4...3...2...1..LIFTOFF!" Neilbury said over the loudspeaker as the rocket engines ignited and lifted the rocket skywards.

The crowed cheered as the rocket climbed ever higher, jettisoning it's boosters when they were empty.

Neilbury smiled as the rocket ascended beyond visual range. He looked over the crowed and cleared his throat. "Would the following Kerbals please join me on the stage!" he said into the mic. A hush fell over the crowd, every eye turned towards Neilbury as he produced a piece of paper from his pocket. "The first Space Tourists are: Rayney Kerman, Erlo Kermen, Dunory Kerman, and last but not least, Anzer Kerman!" He said as the four Kerbals made their way through the crowd up to the stage. "Give a big round of applause for the first Space tourists! They will undergo a few days of training to get them used to the environment, as well as what to expect while in space, as well as during the trip both to and from the Hotel California. Don't worry though, some other lucky Kerbals are going to get their chance next week!" With that Neilbury turned to the four Kerbals on stage and smiled. "It's alright, just go with Jedlie and we'll get your, and pardon the pun, Crash Course in spaceflight started.

Meanwhile...

By this time the Main lift section had been jettisoned and the nosecone disposed of. The warehouse section was preparing to rendezvous with the Space Hotel.

Once within 300m the Tug was sent out to bring the last module into place.

The maneuver was executed flawlessly, and the last module docked to the station.

[Taki117]

Neilbury flips a few switches to set up fuel flow for a proper ascent profile. "Tower this is Shuttle Discovery standing by for launch. Crew is aboard and passengers are all tucked in." he radios to the tower as he finishes the preflight checklist. Jedlie seals the cabin and pressurizes it so that as they ascend they do not accidentally kill their passengers. "Discovery, Tower, skies are clear and you are go for liftoff. Fly safe." came the reply as Neilbury primed the engines and prepared for takeoff. He keyed the intercom and smiled as his face appeared on the small screens in front of the passengers. "Hello and welcome, thank you for flying with us today. Right now we're preparing for take off. In a moment you will be hearing the jet engines spin up, then you might want to hold onto your seats." he said before flicking of the intercom.

Just as he described the jet engines began to spin up.

Soon they were shooting down the runway, gaining speed before Neilbury pulled back on the stick to lift the nose and send them skyward.

Once they were safely in the air Jedlie raised the landing gear and keyed the intercom. "We are safely airborne folks, sorry for the rough start, but it's standard procedure. Please remain seated and keep your seat backs and tray tables in the upright and locked position during the duration of the flight." he said as he prepared the ship for orbital operations.

At an altitude of about 10km Neilbury leveled the aircraft and began to pick up speed. Jedlie once again keyed the intercom. "Alright folks, we are at cruising altitude, you may release your tray tables and seat backs, but please stay seated. Soon you will see flames rushing past the window. DON'T PANIC! This is expected and means that we are passing Mach 3. Once this happens we ask that you take a firm grip on anything that isn't bolted down, and enjoy the flight." he said before deactivating the intercom and turning to Neilbury. "How we doing boss?" he asked. Neilbury never took his eyes off of the instruments. "All systems green, passing Mach 2.5 standby for rocket ignition."

"Jedlie, take over." Neilbury said before keying the intercom. "This is your Captain speaking. Right now we're passing Mach 3. The flames are normal. Soon we're going to switching to the rocket engine so please grab hold of anything that has the potential to fly around. Once again thank you for flying Kerbal Air."

Shortly thereafter Jedlie ignited the rocket engine and began to pitch the craft up to 45 degrees.

Soon they were passing out of the atmosphere and into space. The passengers could feel themselves beginning to float as the Discovery passed into space. As this happened Jedlie began to slowly lower the nose to get up to orbital velocity. Neilbury keyed the intercom again. "Now you know why we asked you to grab stuff, so it didn't float away! Now then, we're getting close to orbit but we ask that you remain seated until we cut the main engine." When he was done he flipped the switch to deploy the forward solar panels.

As the panels deployed Jedlie cut the main engine and sat back in his seat before heaving a sigh. Neilbury keyed the intercom and smiled. "This is the Captain again, you are now free to move about the cabin. Keep in mind that we are not in orbit yet so we will be firing the main engine to circularize our orbit to keep us in space." he said before turning to Jedlie. "I'll take it from here." he said as he took the stick again.

After circularizing Neilbury keyed the intercom. "If you look out the right side of the aircraft you will see the Mun. Also, it's going to be about an hour before we transfer to the hotel, so sit back, relax, and enjoy Zero Gravity."

As Neilbury and Jedlie set up the burn the passengers floated about the cabin. Soon enough Neilbury began the burn to push them towards the station. They then began their braking burn to zero their relative velocity with the station. From here the approach would be done with RCS.

"Alrigth folks, we're going to ask that you return to your seats as we approach your new home. We should be there in a few minutes." Neilbury said as he switched on the RCS system and began their approach to the station. At 300m Neilbury activated the Dorsal docking port and docking lights to guide them to the specified docking port.

As a safety precaution the solar panel was retracted so that it didn't break upon contact with the radiator.

As an additional safety precaution the radiator was also retracted to provide the maximum amount of maneuverability for docking procedures.

It was decided that because the radiator was no longer deployed the solar panel could be re-deployed for maximum energy gathering. At 2.5 meters Neilbury went "hands-off" the controls and allowed the ship to drift into position. At 1 meter the docking magnets took hold and brought the ship into dock.

Finally the passengers disembarked and made their way into their living quarters and settled in for their week in space.

[Deathsoul097]

Will the CSS fit 2.5m parts? In order to keep memory down I've deleted all the HL stuff in B9, and I'm a little leery about adding more mods for that very reason.

Yup, it could lift the ISS modules with room to spare, which at 0.64X scale are about 2.5m wide. It doesn't take up too much memory, and it is looking to be very nice. It also has some custom FX for the SSMEs to make them look like the real deal, along with having a lot less parts than the HL system, with the downside of only really being usable for the Orbiter/Launch Stack. I reckon you could probably make some Cargo Shuttle style versions with it too.

[Taki117]

Yup, it could lift the ISS modules with room to spare, which at 0.64X scale are about 2.5m wide. It doesn't take up too much memory, and it is looking to be very nice. It also has some custom FX for the SSMEs to make them look like the real deal, along with having a lot less parts than the HL system, with the downside of only really being usable for the Orbiter/Launch Stack. I reckon you could probably make some Cargo Shuttle style versions with it too.

You wouldn't happen to have a link handy would you? The Station, while far from complete, is serviceable, but I do plan to expand it with at least a science module (So the two extra Kerbals have something to occupy their time) and maybe an antimatter storage facility. I might also do some module swapping since I found out the Warehouse has opening cargo bay doors.

[Taki117]

With the space tourists happily enjoying their stay in space attention turned back to the Duna Exploration. The drive section almost complete, but the had no way to land and return. It was decided to send up a heat shielded pair of landers, one would perform the main descent, the other would serve as a rescue backup in the event something went wrong.

Here we see the first of the set sitting on the launch pad. Because of the position of the Drive Section it had to be a night launch.

At liftoff the ship climbed rather quickly into the air.

Once the Solid Rocket Boosters had burned out they were jettisoned with the ullage motors pushing it away from the main lift stage. Due to a design oversight the horizontal motors did not provide enough thrust to push the entire booster away, fortunately no damage occurred.

With the main Lifter stage burnt out it was jettisoned and the orbital insertion stage activated.

At MECO the fairing was jettisoned and the antenna on the probe activated to provide continuous communication.

After the breaking burn the orbital insertion stage was jettisoned. (I did not realize how close I had gotten until I rotated the camera, I ended up about 100m away)

The lander was prepared for docking and moved into place.

The probe was decoupled from the lander and deorbited.

[Taki117]

Naturally, since the Docking ports are not that strong a final reinforcement mission was dispatched to shore up the connections and provide additional equipment for the other lander. It was the same ship that had performed the other missions.

Once again a night launch was needed.

The engines were fired up and the crew shot into the air, continuing to their destination.

The lifter stage was jettisoned and the orbital insertion stage ignited for the final push into orbit.

The insertion stage was jettisoned and the solar panels deployed as the crew waited for their transfer.

The capsule docked and construction began.

Orbin placed the struts that were needed and the crew undocked and returned home. At 60km the service module was jettisoned to expose the heat shield.

And the Duna Explorer is left in orbit to wait for her crew that will add the final struts before launching on the first manned interplanetary mission.

[Deathsoul097]

Very nice, I like what you are doing here. Because you asked so kindly, here you go: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/71360-Compontent-Space-Shuttle-dev-thread-IMG-heavy!

[Taki117]

Very nice, I like what you are doing here. Because you asked so kindly, here you go: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/71360-Compontent-Space-Shuttle-dev-thread-IMG-heavy!

I'm glad you like it, and thanks for the link. I'm a tad at a loss as to what to do for the next few days after my next mission (In progress, report to come later) I also can't edit the poll on the front page (That I am aware of)

[Tidus Klein]

Thats a very nice looking interplanetary ship.... Ive had one in the works now for about 2 updates.....I keep getting side tracked:)

[Taki117]

Neilbury radioed from the station early one morning and began to muse. "We know more about the Mun than we do about Kerbin. Why don't we launch a mapsat and map Kerbin!" he exclaimed. Shortly thereafter Wherney and Dunwig were sitting on the runway with engines running, ready to launch a mapsat into a polar orbit.

Off they shot, screaming down the runway. Once they had reached takeoff speed Wherney pulled back on the stick and the nose leapt into the air and soon enough they were airborn, with Dunwig retracting the landing gear.

Because they were heading for a polar orbit it was decided to perform the plane change low in the atmosphere to save oxidizer for the orbital insertion.

Once they were on the appropriate heading Wherney pitched the nose up and proceded to a crusing altitude of about 10km.

From here the flight profile was pretty standard, with Wherney leveling out at 10km to build up horizontal speed.

Once the Atlantis had reached Mach 4 the jet engines were shut down and the rocket engine fired up for the push to orbit.

Once in orbit it was time to deploy the satellite. The bay doors were opened and the satellite launched, opening its solar panels once it was clear of the bay.

The satellite would adjust it's orbit and increase altitude to 300km, the upper limit of the mapping instruments.

With their mission complete Wherney and dunwig prepared to go home. Then the radio crackled with an incoming communication. "Mission Control to Atlantis, Mapsats picked something up near the north pole. We want you to check it out." Dunwig gave Wehrney a worried look before thumbing the talk button. "Roger that Control, proceeding to coordinates." he said before inputting the target coordinates into the nav-computer.

After the deorbit burn the ship pitched up to 40 degrees for reentry.

There weren't any reentry flames (now I know why the Shuttle pitches to such an extreme angle) and the ship was began it's course correction to fly close to the target.

The Jet engines were fired up to provide cross range capability and carry them to their target.

Soon the duo neared the target coordinates. Wherney pitched the nose down to begin landing procedures while Dunwig lowered the landing gear. "Misson control this is Atlantis, no sign of it yet, but we're getting close. Beginning landing procedures."

"What is that?!" Dunwig exclaimed as an unusual shape passed below the aircraft. Wherney nodded and put the plane into a steep bank to attempt to land as close to the target as possible.

A loud bang reverberated through the air-frame as the drag chute deployed. Despite Wherneys' best efforts the plan continued to yaw right as it slowed after touchdown. "We've lost something, go and check it out Dunwig, and go ahead and mark that thing for future recovery." he said as he began to take a systems check.

Dunwig clambered out of the cockpit and droped to the frozen earth below. "Seems like you've clipped the right wing on landing. The landing gear is shot too. There's no way you're getting airborne again." He radioed before making his way towards the strange object.

The walk took about 5 minutes but soon Dunwig was standing next to what appeared to be a crashed flying saucer. "Hey Wherney, we didn't launch this. I've never seen tech like this before. I'm going to climb ontop and see what I can see."

Dunwig then planted a flag on the object for later recovery before the rescue crews picked the two of them (And their damaged aircraft) up to return them to the Kerbal Space Center

[Taki117]

A week after they had arrived it was time for the first space tourists to go home. Neilbury and Jedlie ushered everyone into the Discovery before sliding into their seats in the cockpit. "Alright folks, it's time for us to head back now. We ask that you keep your seat backs and tray tables in their upright and locked positions for the duration of the flight. I will also warn you that things are likely to get bumpy as we hit the upper atmosphere." Neilbury said over the intercom as Jedlie prepared the Discovery for undock.

This is a view from the Koupoula Observation area attached to the living quarters, it was taken by one of the tourists and given to Neilbury as thanks.

Once again, for safety reasons the radiator was retracted just before Discovery undocked.

Once the Discovery was clear of the station the solar panel was deployed once more and the ship oriented for retro burn.

Neilbury came over the inercom and smiled at the passengers. "We are preparing to perform the retro burn. You will feel a slight push as we accelerate, this is normal. We will also be closing the widow shields during reentry." he clicked off the comms and fired up the engine, dropping their periapsis back into the atmosphere.

He then reoriented the ship for reentry, placing it on a heading of 090 and a pitch of 40 degrees.

At 60km the solar panels were retracted and the window shields closed to prevent damage due to reentry.

As the atmosphere thickened the ship automatically pitched to 20 degrees for reentry. At 30km reentry flames began to lick at the air-frame.

The Discovery had come up short so Neilbury fired up the jet engines to carry them to the runway.

As they got closer Jedlie activated the intercom. "And if you look out the left side of the aircraft you will see we are passing the mountain range to the west of the Kerbal Space Center. Please keep your seat backs and tray tables in their upright and locked position until the aircraft has come to a complete stop." he said smiling.

At 5km from the runway Jedlie lowered the landing gear and armed the Drag Chute. Neilbury began the flare maneuver shortly thereafter to bring them in for a soft landing.

Neilbury engaged the motors on the nose gear and began to taxi the Discovery to the hanger where it would undergo an overhaul and technology upgrade.

Space Tourism was a resounding success and the rest of Kerbalkind couldn't get enough.

[Deathsoul097]

Very nice. Why don't you try to expand the station using the CSS, or perhaps build another? Or maybe use it to construct (Or do) a manned Eve Flyby. I got almost a thousand science from one of those, without using any of the science equipment. I simply did crew and EVA reports everywhere, and landed the crew pod back at kerbin. You can manage it with a rocket capable of landing and returning from mun, and it takes about 120 days.

[Taki117]

Very nice. Why don't you try to expand the station using the CSS, or perhaps build another? Or maybe use it to construct (Or do) a manned Eve Flyby. I got almost a thousand science from one of those, without using any of the science equipment. I simply did crew and EVA reports everywhere, and landed the crew pod back at kerbin. You can manage it with a rocket capable of landing and returning from mun, and it takes about 120 days.

Here's my take on the CSS, don't get me wrong it's a wonderfully done mod, but it's not for me. I might keep the Space Shuttle Engines by Dtobi The main reason I did the SSTO Space Tourism is to see if I could. I'd never done an SSTO before, not had I ever set up any kind of crew rotation. That particular mission set (And there will be more) forces both. As soon as I can get enough science to unlock Rover Wheels I'm going to be designing an entire ground crew (My poor computer, but hopefully I have my desktop up soon) so that I can ferry kerbals to the waiting shuttle, have them climb aboard, and take off. Then upon landing have them disembark, refuel the shuttle, and do it all over again, without ever entering the SPH. The station will be expanded eventually, but right now I don't have the parts I want to do it. (Namely the Interstellar Science Lab)

As of right now I'm debating on doing another Munar Science Mission (Maybe to Minmus since the last mission was scrubbed) so that I can unlock cBBps Dragon Capsule, though I'm pretty sure it's designed for 3.75m and the rest of the drive stage is 2.5m, so it will look a tad wonky. My Eve probe has to make a course correction in about 18 days, (I'm considering warping that in 7 day increments) and then it's another 4 before the Duna Explorer goes on it's way. It's getting to the point where I don't want to hang around the Kerbin system to collect science, but neither do I just want to warp to whenever I need.

[kola2DONO]

I love this!

Very very awesome way to document your career mode.

However, i think that even tought jeb dropped out of the space programs, the kerbals would still have kerbin and mun mappings.

[Taki117]

I love this!

Very very awesome way to document your career mode.

However, i think that even tought jeb dropped out of the space programs, the kerbals would still have kerbin and mun mappings.

Probably, but I have SCANSAT installed and mapping things gives me science, also I wanted a reason to land at the pole to get the polar science there (And visit the crashed space ship, cause it's fun!) The original plan there was to land, plant the flag, recover Dunwig (since my aircraft doesn't have ladders yet, need to fix that...) and fly it back to the KSC, unfortuneatly I botched the landing and clipped the wing (And the landing gear clipped through the terrain) so I couldn't have done it even if I wanted to.

Minor Update: I've been testing the Space Shuttle Engines Mod and while I like the look, they aren't efficient enough to be used on my space planes. Don't worry though, I might do an Energia style launch, but I don't know what I would do with it.

[Deathsoul097]

Oh yes please! I love the Energia-Buran. (My favourite Rocket/Shuttle design) I would be very interested to see how you do it. Just don't do a Polyus. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyus_(spacecraft))

For technical reasons, the payload was launched upside down. It was designed to separate from the Energia, rotate 180 degrees in yaw, then 90 degrees in roll and then fire its engine to complete its boost to orbit. The Energia functioned perfectly. However, after disconnecting from Energia, the Polyus spun a full 360 degrees instead of the planned 180 degrees. When the rocket fired, it slowed and burned up in the atmosphere over the south Pacific ocean.

This is awesome. I really want to see how you do interplanetary.

[Taki117]

Oh yes please! I love the Energia-Buran. (My favourite Rocket/Shuttle design) I would be very interested to see how you do it. Just don't do a Polyus.

This is awesome. I really want to see how you do interplanetary.

what do you mean by Don't do a Polyus? you mean to say don't fudge the separation and fail miserably?

As far as interplanetary, I already have a probe on it's way to Eve right now, and my Duna Explorer, the first manned interplanetary vessel, is in a 200km parking orbit wating for crew and transfer window. The Eve Probe had enough dV that it didn't need a transfer Window. (Thank you Alexmoons Launch Window Calculator I can tell you 3 things I won't be doing (2 for sure, 1 questionable) I'm not doing an Eve or Tylo ascent, nor will I do a Lathe Ascent (Though this is questionable).

[Deathsoul097]

what do you mean by Don't do a Polyus? you mean to say don't fudge the separation and fail miserably?

As far as interplanetary, I already have a probe on it's way to Eve right now, and my Duna Explorer, the first manned interplanetary vessel, is in a 200km parking orbit wating for crew and transfer window. The Eve Probe had enough dV that it didn't need a transfer Window. (Thank you Alexmoons Launch Window Calculator I can tell you 3 things I won't be doing (2 for sure, 1 questionable) I'm not doing an Eve or Tylo ascent, nor will I do a Lathe Ascent (Though this is questionable).

Cool. And Yes, that's exactly what I mean. That is also why I linked the article and quoted it about why it failed.

[Taki117]

Cool. And Yes, that's exactly what I mean. That is also why I linked the article and quoted it about why it failed.

I thought so, I'm still working out some kinks with my Shuttle design (For some reason it won't load on the pad. Everything else is there, including MechJeb readouts, but the screen is black and I have no control) I might have to do a complete rebuild. An Energia and Proper Polyus shouldn't be too hard, I might use it to launch the crew module for the Duna Explorer.

Also, the first part of the Eve Mission is here in case you missed it. I have about 18 days before I need a course correction for intercept. Then I will make another to aero-brake into a landing. All while rotating tourists through the Hotel California every 7 days (Though they may stay a bit longer if timetables conflict.)

[Taki117]

Ugh, working on the Energia is hard, mostly because it has so much thrust. I need to experiment with the thrust limiter and lowering the amount of LF/OX in the tanks so that the boosters are more cosmetic than anything (And burn out sooner.) but progress is being made. Now, back to the story.

With the Refits to Discovery complete Neilbury and Jedlie took the next set of tourists to the space station. This would also be a test for three of them, as they had also applied to the space program proper. This would be a night take off, for no particular reason.

Jedlie was at the main controls this time, spooling up the jet engines as they waited for them to come up to full power.

They shot down the runway and Jedlie pulled the nose up as they reached takeoff speed at 130m/s

He pulled the nose into a steep 45 degree climb as Neilbury raised the landing gear, it felt good to be a passenger instead of the one flying the mission.

Soon enough it was time to make the switch over to space mode. Neilbury hit the switch that closed the air intakes, shut down the jet engines, and ignited the rocket. Jedlie kept the Discovery on course as their apoapsis continued to climb.

Soon they were in orbit and coasting towards the rendezvous with the Hotel California. It wouldn't be long before the newest batch of tourists was in their new home.

Once they were less than a kilometer away from the station Jedlie opened up the dorsal docking port in preparation to dock. They then began the docking procedure and were soon docked to the station.

Project Update: The shuttle I have been working on has been shelved until I can get bigger boosters (The ones I have look bad). The Energia I've been working on Functions, but it's not quite the way I want it yet, too much thrust and the boosters burn too long. More to come!

[Deathsoul097]

On the shuttle, you may want to try the KW SRBs, they work pretty nice for it I find. As for Energia, I would try and increase the Thrust on the Side Boosters, and decrease the trust of the Core, but just enough so that you have a TWR greater than 1.3 upon Booster Sep.

[Taki117]

On the shuttle, you may want to try the KW SRBs, they work pretty nice for it I find. As for Energia, I would try and increase the Thrust on the Side Boosters, and decrease the trust of the Core, but just enough so that you have a TWR greater than 1.3 upon Booster Sep.

The issue I'm running into with the shuttle is after booster sep I have a TWR of about .1-.13 so I need to wait for the better SSMEs for the Shuttle Engine Mod. If I can get it up to about .7 I will be happy. The Energia is now down to fine tuning the payload so that it will function all the way out to Minmus and still fit within the KW 1.25m fairing. I don't know how the Russians did it, but I don't think I'm going to be able to do a Buran. Sorry to dissapoint.

[Taki117]

Neilbury came over the comms a worried look on his face. "You're sure about it this time?" he asked Orbin after he had explained the plan for a new type of rocket. This one would have it's payload mounted onto the side, instead of on the top. "We finally figured it out, it will work this time!" Orbin assured Neilbury, before a loud bang was heard off camera. Neilbury shook his head. "You better be right." he said. Soon a feed from the launchpad appeared on his screen.

A countdown began and at Zero the engines were ignited and the launch clamps released. The rocket yawed dangerously before it corrected its course.

The boosters burnt out and were jettisoned, the craft remained stable.

"Alright Orbin, how are you keeping this thing stable?" Neilbury asked as he began to rotate on screen. Orbin smiled and panned the camera around. A set of twin boosters were exposed and showed to be firing to keep the rocket straight.

Finally the main engines stopped firing, the desired apoapsis had been reached and the Energia had begun it's coast phase.

At Apoapsis the main engines fired again and the orbit was circularized. Once it had run out of fuel the Payload Fairings Jettisoned and the Payload Engine took over.

Soon the Mapping satellite was deployed and headed for Minmus.

Two days (And lots of communication sat swaps) later the satellite entered Minmus SoI and entered into a 200kmx200km orbit.

(I'm never doing this again)

[Deathsoul097]

D:

I thought you were using Space Shuttle Engines for it! Wow! That is impressive. Trust me, making asymmetrical designs is much more fun and much easier when you use SSE.