Raven's mission reports (pic heavy!)

[Ravenchant]

Edit as of 8.4. - as this thread is now about mission reports in general, and not just one particular project, it's about time for an index! Yay!

In this place, you can follow some of my exploits in KSP- at least the "serious" ones. I'm currently playing with some plugins (Build Engineer, KAC, and Crew manifest- all essential IMHO), but all of the parts and ships are 100% stock and some of them can be found here, in case you have your own dastardly plans going on and would like to test them

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The reports, vaguely in their correct order:

0.24

Sonda-2, a minimalistic Duna probe mission

Sonda-3&4, small probe mission(s) to Eve and the Joolian system

0.23

Project Angaraka, part 1/3 (in spoiler tags just below)

Pt. 2/3

Pt. 3/3

Project Vesper, part 1

Pt. 2

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So this was it.

My Kerbalkind has done plenty of Mun landings, went to Minmus once, and built orbital stations. But never has one of the little green lumps of joy crazy ventured beyond its home planet's SOI, the honour being reserved for a handful of probes. A plan was hatched, something never attempted before: a plan to visit another planet, and hopefully live to tell the tale!

I think it began the week 0.23 came out. I finished sometime in January, but never got around to posting an AAR. Come on, people, at least pretend to enjoy it

Part one

The general configuration was decided early on. There would be one single vehicle with 4 Kerbals on board, a 1- or 2 man lander and a sample return probe (because I never landed on Duna before and didn't feel comfortable with the thought of not at least sending one unmanned mission first). In case things went south, a capsule could be used as an emergency lifeboat. With a crew capacity of 3, of course, because I'm a heartless bas***d and didn't feel like designing a bigger one

For weight reasons, and certainly not because the 2-man can looks ugly, the lander would only carry one. Here's the ascent stage during an engine test:

Of course, a mothership needs some kind of crew mobility. So I made an MMU and ferried it to my station for testing.

Initially, stability of the ship design left much to be desired:

Meh. Let's redesign that thing. Purely aesthetic heatshield and panels for radiation shielding included.

It worked! Unfortunately the core needed to be launched in one piece, and there was no way this would be stable on top of a run-of-the-mill lifter. So the Kerbals improvised

I've got a bad feeling about this.

Please don't explode. It did, of course. There were about five failed launcher designs prior to this

Against all odds...it limped to orbit, but the fuel tanks were dry as dust. Awright, let's do some refueling!

That's a Pelican, my standard tanker. And because they are build for form rather than function, it required several runs. *sigh* Then it was time for preliminary crewing.

The capsule approaches.

Sample return probe being delivered...

...and here's the lander!

Tankers had to GTFO to free up docking ports.

Inspecting the delivered equipment. I legitimately forgot which Kerbal that was, though

Once everything was settled, it was of course time for a shakedown run. To the Mun!

Part two coming soon! Comments and feedback appreciated

Edited September 7, 2014 by Ravenchant

[Scotius]

Good kerb...that's probably ugliest launcher i've ever seen Kudos for moxie.

[Ravenchant]

@Scotius - I wanted to let the launching part out, but it's like a trainwreck- you have to watch Anyway:

Part two

After the Mun flyby, the ship was vacated and the fuel tanks topped up again.

It then spent a few weeks or so alone in 200 km orbit, waiting for the transfer window to Duna to open. A few days before the burn, the actual crew arrived- Lanwell, Jebediah, Harke and Bob Kerman. The latter two were to do SCIENCE!, Lanwell was piloting, and Jeb... probably boosting morale or something.

They also got to choose the name of their home for the next year. And so IPV Jurij Vega (after a semi-famous scientist) was ready for action.

Bound for Duna! Good thing we have thrust limiters now, as the capsule docked to its side would shift the center of mass for the RCS to handle.

And now we wait. After two months, the intrepid Kerbals' destination is spotted:

Ike got in their way because of course it did.

Aerobraking configuration! Man, the ship looks weird from that angle.

Ejecting the spent fuel tank, which would burn up on the next braking pass while Jurij Vega circularizes. It didn't save much weight, but it sure looks cool.

Then it was time for work! Lanwell and Bob strapped into the MMUs and gave the ship a thorough check. Surprisingly, no one got blown off by a faulty panel and/or contaminated with hydrazine.

Lanwell posing for a selfie. How he managed to take the picture remains a mistery to this day.

Once checks were complete, the kerbals deployed a probe. Because things clearly weren't dangerous enough, it used a...rather cheap method for deorbiting.

Beautiful scenery, but a bit too inclined for my taste.

The first craft ever to land on the surface of Duna! In orbit, the crew exchanged handshakes and high-fives, one of which promptly sent the newcomer Harke spinning out of control and slamming into the next bulkhead.

That's it for now, stay tuned for part 3! Also- should I change the header to [pic-heavy]?

Edited April 8, 2014 by Ravenchant

[Ravenchant]

Part three

If anybody is reading this at all- sorry for the wait, it was a rather busy week

Anyway! Last time, the probe landed on Duna. After a while it took enough readings and atmospheric samples to return back to the Jurij Vega. I don't have any pictures of the intercept and docking, but it wasn't easy...thrust limiters saved my skin again.

After a few days of analysis, it was decided that the descent was safe. Who would get to be the first Kerbal on Duna, and on another planet altogether? Bob declined, and Harke was no pilot at all. Since Jeb could serve as a backup pilot if the unimaginable happened, Lanwell was chosen. Not that he wasn't eager to go, but it was more out of pride than a desire to pick up reddish rocks.

"Confirm undocking complete, relative speed 5 cm/s. All systems looking normal."

"Our sensors show the same. Hey, buddy...have a nice flight. I hope those hours of cardio will pay off."

"Yeah...thanks. See you tomorrow, guys. I...uh...trust the engineers back home, but I'm not going to sing praises before I'm back safe and sound. Increasing relative to 0.2 m/s."

Despite everything, our hero looks overjoyed

Sunrise on Duna, after one orbit. The big moment is almost there!

First time chutes have been deployed in this atmosphere. Keep your fingers crossed...

They hold and lower the landers speed to about 200 m/s. The top then separates.

Almost...

Yes! It worked! Lanwell Kerman is the first to set foot on the red planet! But what is this? That...speck in the sky?

The parachute pack slowly descending, of course. It's a less than half a kilometre walk to the landing site, so off he goes.

"Um...mothership, I think that's of alien origin."

The obligatory flag is planted. Our Kerbal spends the rest of the day collecting samples. After waiting the cold night out in the capsule, it's time to say goodbye.

Rendezvous was succesful. The crew now has to wait for a launch window back to Kerbin...which will take a couple of months. Luckily, there's a lot of data to analyse, and they have a lab!

This is one of the crew taking a last chance photo before departure. Go on, guess who it is!

Burning for home, at last...

After a long and uneventful Hohmann transfer, the ship returns to Kerbin. Aerobraking works without a hitch, and the crew would be jumping with joy if they had a gravitational field to jump around in. They did it!

An additional Corvus crew transfer vehicle comes to pick two of them up.

They will be to space again, when the right time comes. Until then, there's time for one more peaceful look.

Fin

That's it, people! I'll post my next missions here, but don't expect anything soon

[AlamoVampire]

nice mission, beautiful ships! congrats to your intrepid team!

[guz667]

A cool mission, and very cool ships! They really look great! It can be hard to do with these parts; it takes some serious imagining. And I felt some emotion with your writing and visuals...+rep for a fun and aesthetically pleasing AAR!

[CalculusWarrior]

This is great! I especially like the radiation shielding around the engines... I just may have to steal that for use on my own designs

[astropapi1]

I bet that took some serious brainstorming. I especially liked the design of the lander's ascent stage.

[Ravenchant]

This is great! I especially like the radiation shielding around the engines... I just may have to steal that for use on my own designs

Thanks! That's a heatshield, though, not a radiation shield- the engines are perfectly safe* LV-T45s

* for a given definition of "safe"

Edit: M'kay, there is still some stuff to post before I get to current events, but also a chronic case of real-life going on. If time permits, I'll make a report on a manned Eve flyby and Mun base/station shenanigans this weekend

Edited March 19, 2014 by Ravenchant

[Ravenchant]

Update! I do realise that there was a long pause, but I had stuff to do in real life and didn't feel like posting for some time after. Sorry Nevertheless: here's a short one!

After the success of the previous project, which most Kerbals at home watched unfold with awe and joy (except for the top dogs at KSC and the people who approved its funding - they watched with nervous uneasiness, resignation letters at hand), it quickly became clear that for both scientific endeavors and good public relations, more manned missions will be neccessary. Now, a return to Duna right away was out of the question- most of the tech from which it could benefit was still under developement- and mission lengths of several years that would accompany pushes to the outer planets were not considered seriously yet. That leaves one candidate- Eve. And so we come to...

Project Vesper

Fancy name, but the budget is still limited. Trying to pull off a landing would be suicide, data about the planet was still incomplete. A flyby would have to do it- one compact ship, a docked orbiter for a 3-man crew in case of mishaps near Kerbin and that's it. Stupid economic crisis.

T minus a few weeks- the main ship climbs to orbit.

Really, it can hardly be called a mothership. Its wet mass is only about 60 tons, and it was launched almost empty anyway.

Apparently a place could be found for a robotic Gilly lander. It's not much, but in this case every bit counts. On a side note, I really need to make some more advanced small tugs.

Here we can see it practicing the dangerous reverse docking, which is neccessary due to the fact that the payload only has one docking port. The tug pulls straight toward the gap, then GTFOs before it's wedged between the payload and its destination.

Luckily, funding did suffice for a new orbiter. This one is much more capable than the old Corvus and a bit easier on the eyes as well.

The only thing to do now is wait for the launch window to come up. In the meantime, some other things happened:

Trident I and II (small fuel depots) got sent towards Duna

Muskrat (yes, it's a rover, now stifle that laugh ) arrived at Eve

Also, I began work on a Mun station!

Meanwhile, Kassini.

Oh, is it time yet? Then let's floor the throttle!

Second part presumably coming tomorrow

Edited March 30, 2014 by Ravenchant

[Ravenchant]

Project Vesper, part 2

The journey to Eve was uneventful aside from searching for the perfect gravity assist trajectory. It turned out the ship would have to make a powered assist, spending several hundred m/s of delta-v to get a Kerbin intercept. But first, the lander was released.

"I name thee... Gillae!" (bad puns for everyone! )

Nothing could stop the crew from catching a whiff of fresh vacuum outside and get a glance at the purple planet.

The encounter with Gilly, however, didn't go as planned. Good thing the probe was overengineered

...aand separated!

*bounce* "Okay, this time it will stay at rest. *bounce*

Fast forward to the guys coming home. Admittedly... I screwed the aerobraking up a bit. But just a bit, ya hear me?!

Still, everyone got away unscathed and could return to Kerbin on the same day.

Home sweet home!

[thegamingscientist]

Great job so far! Im loving it!

[Ravenchant]

Great job so far! Im loving it!

Thanks, that's nice to hear

By the way, I have a question for the people reading this: would you like the .craft files to be posted along with the reports using them? I still have most of them saved, but usually they aren't good enough for the a rocket builders thread, so I'd like to know whether they're worth uploading.

[kalor]

Angaraka's engine heatshields highly resemble Reeses peanutbutter cups!

Awesome series, nice pics, and great designs!

[Ravenchant]

Angaraka's engine heatshields highly resemble Reeses peanutbutter cups!

I searched the forums for someone named Reese before typing the name into google and finding out it's apparently a candy producer. Huh

Anyway.

The last mission was something different- the Kerbals tried to get a satellite and lander to Duna with a...rather small budget. So the Sonda-2 was launched, on top of a Perun 001. Probably the tiniest working launcher I ever built!

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[Ravenchant]

M'kay, project Red Haze (the Duna/Ike expedition I teased a couple of posts...er, months ago, is flown and documented. While I sift through the images and think of a plausible backstory for it, here's another tiny probe mission for your viewing pleasure

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