The Kerbrazilian Space Program

[Parkaboy]

About KBSP:

Hello, and welcome to the KBSP thread! I hope to use this space to share the accomplishments of the Kerbrazilian Space Agency. After playing many savegames, I decided to try and do one that is more or less long-term. I'm playing career mode, starting on .23, and will try to update the thread with the highlights of the playthrough.

I'm not planning to post a description of every single mission, since that might end up quite boring. Instead, I'd like to focus on the ship designs and the solutions the kerbal engineers found to overcome some of the limitations I'll impose them.

So here we go:

Self-imposed "rules":

I plan to keep things somewhat realistic, even if I'm not using some of the mods that add realism to the game, such as FAR, Deadly Reentry or a life support mod. This means I'll try to follow some rules for my designs, and also that I'll try to keep the designs evolving in a somewhat plausible manner: instead of going crazy with a different design for every mission, I'll try to make designs that can be used for many purposes. Here are the main rules:

• I shall not fly bricks. Rockets must be aerodynamic and/or use fairings.
  
• I shall not mistreat my kerbals. I'll rotate crews every flight and will not keep them on small cabins for long missions.
  
• I shall not reentry without a heatshield, or at least something that passes for a heatshield, unless I'm on a spaceplane or shuttle.
  
• I shall not waste. I must plan my designs as if they cost money, so I'll try to make things reuseable and not leave debris around.
  

Mods used:

I don't plan on using too many mods, and I'll try to avoid those that have a style that's too different from the vanilla game. In some cases, I might use a few parts from a mod.

I'll use a few mods that help with building and flying the ships. MechJeb, Kerbal Alarm Clock and Kerbal Engineer are the main ones. I used to rely a lot on MechJeb, but these days I can fly most missions by myself. I still like to have it around, though, for the boring parts.

I'll use Procedural Fairings, PorkWorks Inflatable Habitats, Klockheed_Martian's Shuttle Engines, Kethane, Remote Tech, KAS and Kommit Nucleonics NERVAS.

I also plan on using the Station Science mod, but I made my own parts using Ubiozur Welding. Those are a bit smaller and lighter than the original ones, which can be seen as cheating, but that's so I can build a station using a shuttle with 2m payloads.

I'll use some parts from KASA, the Kerbonov Cabin, and a few parts from LackLusterLabs SXT.

If you know of other mods that match the style I'm using, feel free to suggest, although it might be good to wait until I posted a few reports so you can see what I'm going for.

Report Index:

Report 01 - The Astra

Report 02 - The Appello Program part 1

Report 03 - The KerbSAT Network

Report 04 - The Appello Program part 2

Report 05 - The Appello Program part 3

Report 06 - The Appello Applications Program part 1

Report 07 - The Astrala Shuttle Program part 1

Report 08 - The Astrala Shuttle Program part 2

Report 09 - The Unitas Supply Vessel

Report 10 - Out of Gas in High KErbin Orbit

Report 11 - Clarke Station Grows

Report 12 - Clarke Station is Completed

Report 13 - Clarke Station Operations

Report 14 - The Appello 13

Report 15 - Wells Station - part 1

Report 16 - Wells Station - part 2

Report 17 - Stapledon Base - part 1

Edited March 26, 2014 by Parkaboy

[Commissioner Tadpole]

Good to see I'm not the only one to get this idea.

[Parkaboy]

The Astra - One-kerbal experimental spaceship

Since the plan was to avoid creating too many different designs, I decided to gather as much science as I could without building a ship. The first few "mission" were actually just tests of the Mk1 cockpit and the spacesuits, which I've used to get all the science I could from KSP, the launchpad and the runway. This allowed me to unlock a few parts, and build a ship that could get into space right away.

The Astra was the name of that ship. It flew 20 missions. The first few were just tests of the ejection systems, structural integrity and the parachutes. With those I got science from the atmosphere and the shores. Then I started flying the space missions. A common Astra mission profile can be seen in the album below:

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The first few missions allowed me to add to the design larger fuel tanks (instead of stacked smaller ones), and better science parts. The Astra you see on the album is the final version, but it isn't too different from the first one - a bit taller, perhaps, and wider on the body that's under the fairings.

While a few of the orbit missions were designed to gather science from the space near and high above Kerbin, many others collected data from the ground, after landing on all the biomes on Kerbin. The last three missions were Mun flybys, gathering data from the space high and near the Mun, as well as observations of a few of its biomes from space.

I've rotated the crews, letting each of the three original kerbonauts fly on each turn. Three newbies flew 2 missions each, and the longest mission was Doodbin Kerman's near Mun flyby, which lasted nearly five days. Mission Control decided that it was risky to let kerbals longer than that in such a small space, so missions to Minmus would need a bigger cabin.

[Parkaboy]

The Appello Program - part 1

After the success of the Astra program, the folks at the KBSC decided to go for a bigger ship. More space and more delta-v meant that Minmus could be reached and they wouldn't have to stop on Mun flybys. So the Appello program was born. "Appello" was an old language word for "to move towards", or "to land". The long term goal of the program was to land kerbals on the two moons and (hopefully) to return them safely.

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After 5 missions, it was clear that the Appello program couldn't reach its goal as planned without a good satellite network. The boys at KBSC wanted to cover the whole Kerbin SOI before moving on. They were very worried with the losses of the stages that were deemed returnable, and decided to start a parallel program before going further with Appello.

[Parkaboy]

The KerbSAT Network

Since a better coverage of the Kerbin system was needed to advance the plans of the KBSA, the guys at the space center decided to put the science expeditions on hold, and started working on an unmanned (unkerballed?) program to put a satellite network in orbit.

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The four KerbSATS guarantee coverage for the whole Kerbin system, since any of the sats can point its dish to a distant ship, if it isn't near one of the moons. Putting them into a "square" configuration around the planet wasn't easy, and the orbits aren't perfect, but at least each sat has enough fuel left for many corrective maneauvers.

[Orionkermin]

I like the way you designed the satalites, they look cool.

[Parkaboy]

I like the way you designed the satalites, they look cool.

Thanks! They probably find themselves handsome, too, because now whenever I try to fly one from the tracking station, they reproduce themselves spawning several copies on the same spot, resulting on some awesome but unexplainable explosions.

It might be a bug related so some of my mods, probably the one that strengthens the junctions. It's weird that it only happens with the satellites, though.

[Parkaboy]

The Appello Program - part 2

With the satellite network in place, the Appello Program can try to fulfill its main goal: to put a kerbal on the Mun. See below how the mission of the Appello 6 went:

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Well, turns out a small design mistake cost the program a rocket. A shame, after all the work they did to put the remote control network in place, and in the end the vessel is lost right under direct reach of the space center. Anyway, more Appello missions will come, and maybe next time they might be able to land and reuse the launch stage.

[Sovek]

Hmmm, Your rules include a few of mine. I think I shall read through this series. Thanks for posting it.

BTW, how are you going to deal with the 150 image limit with Imgur for this series (aside from going pro)

Edited February 24, 2014 by Sovek

[Parkaboy]

Hmmm, Your rules include a few of mine. I think I shall read through this series. Thanks for posting it.

BTW, how are you going to deal with the 150 image limit with Imgur for this series (aside from going pro)

Hmm... To be honest, I didn't know about the imgur limit up until now. I'll probably switch to using my Picasa account after I hit it. I was using imgur because it seemed more practical, but if it does has such a low limit, then I guess it's back to my old ways.

[Nahim]

Keep the great work man, i will be following this thread! : D

[Parkaboy]

I'm working on the next report, and trying a new way of posting it. Here's a picture test: please tell me, can everyone see the pic below?

[Taki117]

Looks good. I like it, and yes, we can see the pics.

[Parkaboy]

Looks good. I like it, and yes, we can see the pics.

Great, thanks! I wasn't sure the album permissions were set correctly. I'll post the next chapter later today.

[Parkaboy]

The Appello Program - part 3

Since the Appello 6 proved that the KBSP could send a mission safely to Mun and back, more launches were planned. No changes were made to the mission profile. The command center was hoping to get three more moon landings before trying new stuff.

The Appello 7 gets into space without issue. The rocket is quite reliable at this point. One thing, however, is new: the antenna was redesigned, and should allow the ascent stage to be controlled while landing back at the KBSC.

Finally they manage to recover an Appello rocket, after six were wasted - although, to be honest, there had been only one attempt to recover it prior to this mission.

The Appello 7 crew is made up of Bill, Barrick and Fredrim. Bill is the commander, and the lucky kerbal that would land in Mun's East Farside Crater.

The landing goes exactly as planned, and Bill extracts as much science as he can from that spot. After that, the lander is reunited with the Command Module, where Bill returns to the ship with the scientific data, transfers the remaining fuel from the landing module, and abandons the module in orbit before returning home.

The following mission is the Appello 8, with Bob, Jerdrin and Shepemone. The target is now Minmus.

A flawless mission, with its crowning moment being Bob's landing on one of the flat lake beds.

Appello 9 also went to Minmus, carrying Jerdrin, Shelgun and Hadrie.

This time, the chosen landing site was a dark patch of the Highlands. At last hour, commander Jerdrin wasn't feeling great, so he was replaced on the lander by Shelgun. Some say he chickened out, but his colleagues on the ground agreed that the long trip to Minmus in free fall can get a kerbal's stomach in knots.

After another land-science-flag-return run, the Appello 9 mission is complete, and the scientists start discussing new ways to use the Appello Program hardware.

Next: The Appello Applications Program

[Sovek]

Ok, please explain in detail how you did that? I'm not familiar with Google + at all. Cropping is easy, Posting albums to the forums is another story.

[Parkaboy]

Ok, please explain in detail how you did that? I'm not familiar with Google + at all. Cropping is easy, Posting albums to the forums is another story.

Oh, I just posted the images, not the albums. The pictures were quickly cropped and edited together in Photoshop, then uploaded to my Picasa account, which now is the Google + albums. I'm not really very familiar with Google + and don't use it much. I think there's a way to share the albums, but I just took the URLs from the pics and posted them here.

[Parkaboy]

The Appello Applications Program - part 1

The engineers of the KBSC are quite worried about keeping the expenses manageable, and planning the missions to be the most economic possible. That involves reusing as many vessels as they can. The first step was being able to land the Appello ascent stage. Now they want to change the mission profile in order to reuse the landers left in Mun and Minmus orbit.

The Appello 10 is the first completely automated Appello mission. It carries an orbital lab to LKO, where it will meet a subsequent manned mission. The lab shall be taken to Mun orbit, where it can be used to service the science modules on the landing modules.

Next comes the Appello 11. It is simply the launch of an oversized Command Module, one with extra fuel capabilities, which will push the lab into Mun orbit insertion. It carries Jebediah, Doodmin and Billy-Bobdas.

In Kerbin orbit, the Appello 11 module leaves its ascent stage, maneuvers into meeting the Appello 10 rocket, docks with the lab, separates from its ascent stage, and burns towards a Mun encounter. Both rockets are brought back to the KBSC. Everything is going well.

They arrive in Mun orbit at 100 km altitude. The maneuvers are carefully calculated in order to result in a rendezvous with the Appello 7 lander. Doodming then goes for the longes EVA in KBSP record: a spacewalk of 2.1 km towards the lander. It's a tense moment, because the LM is barely visible from the newly arrived station, but the kerbonaut manages to reach the lander and enters its cockpit. The LM has no fuel, but plenty of monopropellant.

Doodmin then pilots the Appello 7 lander (which the crew starts calling "LM7") into docking with the station, now officially renamed as "Verne Station". After that, Doodmin and Billy-Bobdas start working on the lab to make the LM7 science-capable again, and Jeb leaves on board the CM to find the other lander.

Jeb meets the Appello 6 lander, which he had previously left in a 75 km high orbit, in order to facilitate a future rendezvous. The LM is Jeb's old friend, nicknamed "Gilly": the lander from the historic first landing. Jeb docks the CM with it and pushes it into a rendezvous with the station. Doodmin then leaves the station to board the lander and help Jeb docking the two vessels with the lab.

Everything is docked with the lab. The crew works on resetting the experiments on the "Gilly" module, and transfers as much fuel as they can from the CM to the landers. The KBSC command was hoping there would be enough fuel for a landing, but pushing the lab into Mun orbit seems to have spent more than previously calculated.

The crew then returns to the CM and goes back home. They laid the foundations for the future exploration of the Mun.

Next comes the Appello 12 mission: Bill, Barrick and Fredrim reach Verne Station on board an even larger CM. They're hoping the bigger vessel can carry enough fuel to refuel at least one lander.

There are two complications: first, the fuel the new CM manages to carry to the lab isn't enough for a landing, at least not with the required safety margin. Fortunately there was enough fuel from the previous mission to complete the tank. The other problem is that the docking ports between the LM7 and the station seem to have weld shut. The only way around the problem they find is to transfer all the fuel to "Gilly" and use the older lander. It is good that they had two LMs available, because it seems that one will only serve as extra living space and a fuel tank for now on.

Going down with the "Gilly", Bill becomes the third kerbal to step on the Mun. What's nice about this landing is the view of a large crater inside the famous "Twin Craters". Lots of new data for the scientists at home.

Bill flies back to the station, leaves Gilly nicely parked in its spot, then transfers all the data to the Command Module. Now it's time to go home.

Despite the mission's success, Mission Control decides that the Appello Applications program can only continue when new hardware becomes available: they need a larger rocket to send a CM with lots of extra fuel into orbit. Maybe the KBSP should focus on Kerbin before trying to go further in moon exploration.

Next: a Shuttle!

[Parkaboy]

The Astrala Shuttle Program - part 1

Worried about the cost of parts and keeping the skies clear of debris, the engineers of the KBSC came up with a revolutionary design: a space shuttle! Not only the new design means the recovery of every engine and all those other expensive parts (empty tanks and SRBs are somewhat cheap, compared), but it also allows considerable payload to be put into Kerbin orbit.

The Astrala 1 is launched vertically thanks to three shuttle engines and two customized SRBs. The solid rocket boosters are dropped a little after launch.

The cockpit and cargo bays are manufactured by LackLuster Labs, but the secret of this design is the custom wings, made to order. After releasing the SRBs, the shuttle ascends upside down, pushing the fuel tank up while keeping the engines on the center of mass. It's quite easy to fly, and the launch can be done mostly on autopilot.

The fuel on the large orange tank is nearly enough to reach a 75 km orbit. To keep things safe, the shuttle pushes the empty tank with its own fuel until orbit is circularized, and then ejects it. On ejection, four small separatrons push the tank back into the atmosphere, where it will decelerate into crashing in the ocean.

Here's where the design still needs improvement: the ascent engines aren't quite adequate for orbital maneuvers. It does well on this mission, but it only has to reach a 250 km orbit. Future missions will have to rendezvous with the planned station, and that requires more precision.

Up at 250 km, the shuttle releases its cargo: an inflatable habitat. Build by PorkWorks industries, this hab was adapted into a laboratory for orbital research [using the Station Science mod]. It's the groundwork of the Clarke Station.

Landing goes even better than expected, although deorbiting with the ascent engines is quite a pain. But the shuttle is put into a suborbital trajectory and its fuel is dumped without incidents, and it glides after reentry until softly touching the runway.

Next: Clarke Station starts to grow!

[Parkaboy]

The Astrala Shuttle Program - part 2

The first Astrala mission carried the space lab to an altitude of 250 km. The shuttle returned home carrying Bob, while leaving Dillan and Shepemone in the newly christened Clarke Station. The second mission, a week later, was designed to expand the station and begin extracting science from it. Notice an improvement on the ship's design: four small engines were added for orbital maneuvers.

Given how there was no way to control the space lab (other than rotating it with the reaction wheels), the Astrala 2 brought a RCS tug. The remote controlled vehicle would be very useful in the next missions, helping assembly the station. The shuttle also brought more crew: Jerdrin was the pilot, Shelgun and Hadrie the passengers who would fill up the lab and allow the first experiment - a Plant Growth experiment on the shuttle's cargo bay - to be run. Jerdrin would then fly the shuttle home for a safe landing.

Another week, and another launch: this time the Astrala 3 carries a cyclotron to the station. The crew is made up by Jeb, Doodmin and Billy-Bobdas.

The new module is docked to the station, thanks to the RCS tug, while Doodmin and Billy-Bobdas switch places with Shelgun and Dillan, who'll return to Kerbin with Jeb. Another Plant Growth experiment is done.

The shuttle thens flies down into the atmosphere. All the remaining fuel is dumped before reentry making the ship light and stable enough to glide into a soft landing on the runway.

[A few comments about the station: I'm using the Station Science mod - which users Ubiozur's Welding to create the parts; but instead of using the original parts for the station modules, I'm making my own, so they can fit inside the cargo bay. The space lab was an inflatable hab from Porkjet, with the module from the Station Science part edited into the config file. The cyclotron was created by welding a few parts - from LackLuster Labs SXT and a toroidal tank from the kommit_nucleonics mod. Some of these parts are lighter than the original ones from the mod - you may consider that cheating, but for me it never made sense to get these parts early on the tech tree, while not having the rocket parts to put them in orbit].

Next: The shuttle earns a rest while we try a service ship for the station.

[Parkaboy]

The Unitas Supply Vessel

While the kerbonauts at the Clarke Station used the RCS tug to push them into a higher orbit [260 km above kerbin would allow me to get extra science from the Station Science parts and also let me timewarp faster], the engineers at the KBSC kept working on cheaper alternatives to the Astrala Shuttle. They had in mind a smaller vessel for supply runs and crew rotations. Here's what they came up with:

The Unitas 1 launched with only Bill Kerman on board. The launch was a success: the two customized large SRBs were released, and the liquid fuel stage raised above the thickest parts of the atmosphere, where the protective casing was ejected. Finally, at 75 km above Kerbin, the spaceship was released from the rocket, ready for its first mission.

The the ascent stage, under remote control, burned retrograde at the right spot to descend back to the space center. After facing the heat of reentry [i wish I had a proper heatshield that coul open and shut to protect the engines, but I'll just pretend they're sturdy enough to resist the heat], the rocket landed right in the bullseye: the center of the launchpad [there's no way I'm going to be able to repeat this accomplishment, but I'll have to remember to remove the launch towers before landing; I almost bumped into one].

Meanwhile, the Unitas 1 maneuvered into meeting Clarke Station, using its three tiny engines. The cargo module on the front of the vessel carried supplies and materials for a new plant growth experiment.

Six days later, after the experiment was done, Shepemone Kerman went out to extract the results, and here a design flaw became apparent: we should have ejected this panel earlier, so it could drop back to Kerbin, falling safely into an unknown and possibly inhabited location, instead of becoming permanently remotely dangerous orbital debris. So far we had been very careful not to leave anything in orbit, but well, that's life.

After that, it was just a matter of undocking, burning retrograde, ejecting the spent cargo module and facing the fiery reentry. Bill, Shepemone and Hadrie were back home.

For the Unitas 2 launch, the crew included Bob, Barrick and Fredrim, and the ship carried a Prograde Kuarks experiment, to make use of the new cyclotron. This time the extra panel was dropped with the other fairings, earning Commander Bob the Tidy Orbit badge.

With the new Unitas vehicle, the Clarke Station started falling into a routine: every week a ship went back to Kerbin, carrying two kerbals, while a new one came up bringing two others, keeping the station crewed with four kerbonauts at nearly all times, not to mention the pilot. This time Barrick and Fredrim replaced Doodmin and Billy-Bobdas, who went back to the ground with Bob.

Next: The shuttle brings a new module, but something goes dangerously wrong.

[Nahim]

Very well managed space program you got here matey.

Can't wait for what's goin next...

[Parkaboy]

Out of Gas in High Kerbin Orbit

And so it was that a new Astrala mission was prepared. The fourth flight of the shuttle would take a new module to the Clarke Station: a zoology bay for the study of living organisms in space conditions. The crew picked for the task was Jerdrin, Shelgun and Hadrie. It was also the first time something went very wrong with a KBSP mission.

It is believed now that the engineer responsible for the module lied about its weight. The review board charged with investigating the incident concluded that the kerbal couldn't meet the requirements in time, and simply faked the data in order to get his payload on board, hoping it would still be inside the safety margin. However, some still believed that the KBSC engineers were wrong about the shuttle capabilities, and that it just couldn't carry as much weight as they thought.

Fact was, by the time the Astrala 4 reached orbit, it was dangerously low on fuel. It only managed to conclude the rendezvous maneuvers with Clarke Station by spending nearly all its monopropellant.

And so it was that these three kerbals, plus the two others already on board the station, were stranded in space. Even if the shuttle drained all the monopropellant from the RCS tug, it wouldn't be enough to bring it down home.

The best solution would be a rescue mission: they would send a Unitas ship with its cargo module ful of fuel, and hope it would be enouhg to bring the shuttle back.

Dillan and Shepemone flew the Unitas 3 rescue mission, which launched only a couple of days after the Astrala 04. It was luck that they had a craft nearly ready by that time, and the rescue was a success: the Astrala 4 was partially refueled, and had enough delta v to burn into a safe reentry trajectory.

Then the pair of heroes returned home to be bathed in glory. Or at least they expected that, but the only got a few pats on the backs. Anyway, the KBSP had faced its first danger, and came up mostly unscathed. No damage was done, other than the expenses with the extra mission and the poor engineer who lost his job.

Next: Clarke Station gets bigger and bigger!

[Nahim]

Now i realize...

Is the station named after arthur C Clarke?

[Parkaboy]

Now i realize...

Is the station named after arthur C Clarke?

Yes! There's also a Verne Station in Mun orbit. I'm using famous sci-fi authors for station, base and interplanetary ship names. There are plans for a Wells Station in Minmus orbit and a Stapledon Base in the Mun's East Crater.