Geb Plays 0.23.5 career - The Longbeast Logistics Company (pic heavy)

[geb]

With the new version out, it's time for a new career playthrough.

I will be playing with one rule: booster designs must be reused whenever possible. The Longbeast Logistics Company doesn't like to set up production for a rocket design that will only be used once. Engineering costs money! All payloads will have to be built with this in mind.

Given that limitation, I'd better make my first booster design a good one.

Mission One - Research Shed

Let's see how much science Jeb can collect without using any booster at all.

Hanging on the pod ladder gets you an EVA report in flight. I can easily take reports and samples of the launchpad.

A quick jog over to the runway gets a few more samples. Launchpad, KSC, and runway are all treated as seperate targets for EVA report and sampling, even if they're in the same biome.

It's a longer walk out to the shore, but the water samples are worth it. If you take two trips, you can get mud samples too.

That'll do.

Edited April 5, 2014 by geb

[geb]

Unicorn One - Unicorn Booster Proving Flight

The first real flight for LLC will be using the Unicorn Booster.

Unicorn One carries a basic science payload, and the mission is planned to make good use of it, but the real purpose of the flight is to demonstrate the capabilities of the rocket, and to prove its safety for carrying crew.

The design is a classic one. The core first stage has a very long fuel tank and lots of delta-v, but a poor thrust to weight ratio. The boosters have half as much fuel, so by the time they run dry the core stage has a quite respectable TWR and still plenty in the tank.

The upper stage is nothing special. It has plenty of delta-v for near Kerbin exploration though.

Unicorn One easily reaches orbit, with a very substantial fuel reserve. This will be useful later, but on this mission Seeberry Kerman won't be going any higher than 100km. He has been instructed to go once round the planet, collecting science results along the way, and then return.

The propulsion module is ejected sideways. Sending it off to one side prevents any risk of hitting debris during reentry.

Reentry is relatively gentle on the spacecraft, but harsh on the pilot. Low temperatures, high G forces. Seeberry will need a few days to recover his full height.

The LLC engineers will need to know how the pod reacts to water. Floating and not dissolving are both positive signs.

LLC will be using Unicorn-derived spacecraft for a very long time to come in this career. The next few flights will be testing its ability to carry larger payloads to orbit, and testing its range with smaller payloads. It should easily be able to handle high orbit flights, even loaded down with more science gear, but beyond that it might need care and attention in trimming payload mass.

Edited April 5, 2014 by geb

[geb]

Unicorn Missions Two, Three and Four - Material Science

The next three missions will all be flown using a common design. The Unicorn spacecraft has enough payload capacity for more than two science bays, as they are relatively light, but the bulky components don't look good in huge stacks. Each flight will push the boundaries of exploration a little further, doing a material study experiment as they go, and using the secondary bay for some science nearer home.

Unicorn Two doesn't even make a circularisation burn, instead remaining on a suborbital trajectory. This is because it can achieve its science objectives just by getting high enough, and also because the science bonus for recovering a suborbital craft hasn't been claimed yet.

Good, but we can do better. On to the next flight.

Unicorn Three finally starts putting those big fuel tanks to their intended use, and hauls some material bays up to high circular orbit. Nothing spectacular, but it gives us some new science, and demonstrates the capabilities of the ship.

The Unicorn Three pod lands on the plains near the western deserts. It's worth taking the time to grab samples.

Unicorn Four will push closer to the limits. This mission will require most of the ship's fuel reserves, so it has to be piloted efficiently on the ascent. For optimum efficiency, keep a close eye on vertical speed and the throttle.

Seeburry Kerman (not to be confused with the pilot of Unicorn One, Seeberry Kerman) has been chosen for this mission due to his high stupidity. Nobody is entirely sure he'll get back home. Despite this, he pilots the craft well and brings it into orbit with plenty of fuel to spare.

Seeburry's mission is to fly a Mun free return, taking material science results from exposure to conditions high above the Mun.

There is enough delta-v, plus a small reserve for corrections.

Now that Seeburry has shown that kerbals can survive out there, LLC feels more confident in sending crew with a lower stupidity rating.

Important note: you are supposed to retrieve all science experiments before this point. I've made that mistake before, and never intend to again. On this flight, Seeburry recovered all the material samples many hours ago on an EVA over the Mun.

High temperature, but relatively low G forces. Seeburry will be available to fly again immediately.

A safe ocean recovery gives us no bonus science, but there's still a good return on the flight.

I had to spend a very long time trying to decide what technology to develop next. Jet engines would have been useful for exploring the surface of Kerbin, and a thermometer would have given the Longbeast Logistics Company a few extra options, but I didn't have enough points to build craft that would put them to best use. The most immediate returns would instead come from long endurance craft with good batteries and good solar panels. For now at least, crew reports and EVA reports are the future.

Edited April 5, 2014 by geb

[geb]

Unicorn Missions Five and Six - Transmitting Reports

To increase the range of the Unicorn spaceships, all the science gear is removed and replaced with electrical power systems. Kerbal batteries are amazingly light, so there's no harm in cramming a lot into the decoupler.

Unicorn Five launches into an inclined orbit at the Minmus-Kerbin Equator descending node, and the upper stage carries pilot Herbert Kerman onto a Minmus transfer orbit.

The dry mass isn't much, there's a reasonable amount of fuel left, and Minmus departure doesn't need much of a kick. It looks like Herbert will be able to come home, but before that, there is a lot of EVA observation to do.

Herbert becomes intimately familiar with the pod hatch mechanism. Kerbal doors are marvels of modern engineering, allowing a helmet almost half a metre wide to fit through a 30cm hatch. Unfortunately, nobody has invented a radio that fits in an EVA suit, so Herbert spends a lot of time poking his head out, staring down at Minmus, then going back inside to transcribe a report.

All science results have been transmitted home already, but Longbeast Logistics Company policy states that pilots should not be stranded in deep space in a tiny steel cone.

This is all subjective observation, eyewitness accounts only, but it's still valuable scientific data. Through hearing stories about Minmus looking green, flat, or lumpy, LLC engineers will learn how to build longer fuel tanks and RCS systems.

Unicorn Six is not capable of making capture into Mun orbit and returning, but a low Mun flypast will still get a small amount of useful data. By carefully fine tuning the approach, the craft can get a gravity assist, escape into Kerbolar SOI by the barest margin, and then make a small burn to return.

The Mun is more useful for its gravity than its surface on this flight. Any reports we get on the way past are just a bonus.

Less than 30 seconds after leaving Kerbin SOI, Bill is already feeling lost.

The return part of the flight comes only a few minutes later. The return maneuvre is not as cheap as you might expect, as Kerbin's gravity is suddenly switched off once you pass the boundary, meaning that Unicorn Six has to spend over 100m/s delta-v in changing course. It's worth the fuel cost though, as it puts the craft on an almost direct course back to Kerbin's atmosphere.

It's always worth remembering that a craft is a science instrument all by itself, as long as it goes somewhere new. With this knowledge, LLC will develop new probe cores and research seismometers. LLC has reached the limits of what can be achieved with a manned pod on a Unicorn booster. It's time to develop smaller payloads.

Edited April 5, 2014 by geb

[Fox62]

Good work.

[geb]

Salamander Unmanned Missions

The entire point of the Longbeast Logistics Company is to find something that works well, and reuse it everywhere it is appropriate to do so.

Here is a Salamander probe. Without all the unnecessary mass of crew, life support, and return fuel, the Unicorn booster can easily land a science package on both of Kerbin's moons. Each probe carries seismometer, thermometer, and more mystery goo than it really needs.

Each landing gets me about 80 points of science. There are big losses in transmission for some of it, but the Mun landers can't return, and 80 is better than zero.

I did mention that we'd be reusing the design? Yes. There are a lot of Salamander probes. Every single Mun biome gets a permanent seismology station.

Yes, and on Minmus too. One for each biome. There are really a lot of these probes.

Always buy spaceships in bulk. They are cheaper by the dozen, and if your contract calls for two dozen, they're cheaper still.

Edited April 5, 2014 by geb

[geb]

Imp One - Ion Engines to Duna

LLC has been collecting science everywhere within reach to design a new general purpose spaceship. Ion engines are the key technology. This is the only way to cram enough delta-v into the carry weight of a Unicorn booster. Behold, the Imp.

The Imp carries only orbital science experiments, as it is not designed for landings. It holds thermometer, gravitometer, material bay, and goo cannisters. The expendable experiments can be decoupled for an easier return trip and increased range. The Unicorn upper stage still has some fuel left, enough for about 400m/s boost out of LKO, so departure isn't painfully slow.

The four sets of panels can run the ion engine at about 90% throttle at this distance from Kerbol.

There was a perfect Duna launch window presenting itself to us, so that's our first interplanetary target. The ion engine will have a lower peak thrust out there further from the sun, but it shouldn't be so low that we miss the capture.

There's some immediate science return on this mission. Gravity scan of the entire kerbolar system gets us a significant chunk of data, which we can transmit back right away. Seeberry Kerman takes a second reading for detailed analysis later, when the pod returns home, but that's over 300 days away yet. There's a lot to do in the meantime.

Gryphon Station and Kelpie One - Medium Lift Capability

There's still plenty that can be done with the standard LLC Unicorn light lift booster, but eventually we will need something bigger. While Seeberry and Imp One are cruising through interplanetary space, we have time to do some test flights.

This is a Kelpie medium lift booster, carrying the unmanned Gryphon station, a test payload of approximately 16 tonnes. Gryphon station has no propulsion of its own, but it does carry a fuel reserve, so if the Kelpie upper stage fails to take it into stable orbit, a quick fuel transfer will rescue the station. If all goes well, this will not be necessary.

LLC research has been heavily biased towards small components and high tech, so large rockets have been somewhat neglected. We don't have access to any unified first stage engines, so we had to design a cluster. Eight LV-T45s on stuctural hull segments provide enough thrust, and a suitably aerodynamic base to the vehicle. The solid fuel boosters let the first stage carry an extra fuel tank segment, adding a lot of extra payload capacity.

Gryphon Station is designed primarily as ballast. It's job is just to be heavy on top of our test rocket. Secondary purposes are analysis of gravity scans in LKO, and refuelling visiting LLC ships.

Success. 100% fuel still remaining in the payload. The Kelpie booster has been proven effective.

Now it is time to send some crew up to the station to get it running. This is Kelpie One, a local orbit crew taxi with plenty of room on board for life support supplies. The space station will need a lot of snacks.

The crew taxi is much lighter than the station, so it reaches orbit without any difficulty, and with plenty of fuel to spare. The pilots can burn a lot of delta-v to make a more rapid rendezvous.

The version one crew taxi has a small design flaw. It has no solar panels or batteries, and so has to operate on the pod battery alone. This does not endanger the mission, as the power lasts long enough, and there is RCS as a backup system, but future versions will carry additional batteries. The docking otherwise goes smoothly.

Science time. I send up my two least stupid crew, so hopefully they can do sensible things with all the gravity data.

[geb]

Imp Two - Asteroid Capture and Explosions

With nothing better to do in the 300 days before Imp One reaches Duna, the LLC tracking station has been watching asteroids. It didn't take long before they spotted an interesting opportunity. An upgraded Imp should be able to handle a little class A like this one.

Imp Two, piloted by Jebediah Kerman launches to intercept, carrying a new experimental bit of equipment. All the mission planners feel odd about such an unconventional trajectory - it's nowhere near equatorial! - but the fuel surplus on the upper stage means there is no problem flying it.

Intercept maneuvres are complicated by the fact that the most efficient place to burn is in darkness, where the solar-electric drive systems won't work. A double burn is needed, raising apoapsis into sunlight, then correcting with a longer burn.

The initial intercept course is not perfect, but the maneuvre to match velocities will be imprecise too. The ion engine causes problems with its low acceleration, but solves them again with high ISP.

After a series of corrections and a long time cruising, Jeb and Imp Two are close enough to start making observations by eye.

Mission control make a note. Never give Jeb a big red button to press. Having the big red button control The Claw does not help.

Jeb is given authorisation to capture, despite the look on his face.

Jeb immediately turns the engines retrograde for a capture burn. The initial mission plan was for several hours of scientific observations before attempting a turn, but Jeb was too excited.

The asteroid is much less massive than expected, and Imp Two is able to bring it into a stable orbit with less than 20 minutes of thrust. Xenon reserves remain so high that authorisation is given for extra maneuvres.

THM-614 is brought into a retrograde equatorial orbit with a high eccentricity in preparation for a long burn at apoapsis. Imp Two should be able to completely reverse the orbital direction before bringing the rock lower.

At this point things start to go wrong.

Jeb is left to his own devices for a few moments as the tracking station crew check on the progress of Imp One, but when the radar turns back to observe Imp Two again...

There's not much left of the spaceship. It has a few bare tens of metres per second delta-v from its RCS systems, but the ion system is gone, the power system is gone, and most importantly, the parachute is gone.

Something has gone very seriously wrong. The cause of the explosion becomes apparent as the tracking station tries to locate THM-614.

The asteroid and claw are not just gone. Somehow they have teleported to a stable orbit on the other side of the Kerbin system. In only a few minutes, the rock has covered more than fifty million metres. LLC docking rings are not designed to handle stresses like that.

Recovering Jeb and his asteroid samples suddenly become top priority for the Longbeast Logistics Company.

Edited April 5, 2014 by geb

[meve12]

Asteroid Kraken?

[geb]

Asteroid Kraken?

It didn't seem like a classic Kraken bug. It was more like the rock had its orbital parameters scrambled while it was being unpacked from timewarp. I have no idea what caused it.

[geb]

Imp Two Rescue - Emergency Action

By good fortune, there is already a spaceship in orbit capable of rescuing Jebediah from the wreckage of Imp Two. The Kelpie crew taxi at Gryphon station has enough range to get there.

The taxi is refuelled using the station tanks. The two crew aboard the station are instructed to both transfer to the taxi. Although there is a minor risk in going out on the rescue, LLC procedure does not allow crew to stay on the station without an escape pod.

Bob and Herman are optimistic. This is their chance to be heroes! The departure burn goes smoothly, though again the rendezvous is a little inaccurate and requires correction.

It is a good thing that the Imp Two pod life support is still intact. It's a long way out.

Imp Two was working with an asteroid in a retrograde orbit around Kerbin, so the burn to match velocity costs Kelpie One a lot of fuel. There's not much left in the tank by the time it gets close.

Among the parts that were torn off in the explosion was the Imp Two docking ring. Jeb will have to EVA between unconnected craft.

Jeb is strictly instructed to recover the asteroid sample before abandoning the pod. That sample is all that remains of the Imp Two mission objectives.

The deorbit burn is too much for the liquid fuel to cover, so Kelpie One has to finish the burn on RCS. Even though they can see the monopropellant tank pressure, and know they've got plenty left, Bob and Herman are not at all happy about this. Jeb is Jeb, of course.

After a long cruise down the gravity well, and after pulling a few Gs, Bob and Herman are greatly reassured to see ground moving at reasonable speeds below them. Jeb has had several hours to calm down, and with no rocket fuel to play with, he's starting to get bored. He'll be much happier on the ground, where there are fresh rockets being built.

The Imp Two mission is declared a partial success. With THM-614 in a stable orbit, there is plenty of time to decide what to do with it. In the meantime though, Imp One will be approaching Duna, and has a lot of science to do there.

[meve12]

Good thing the docking ring on the claw is still there. You won't need another claw, assuming you can burn that other one off.

[geb]

Imp One Continued Mission - Duna

180 days after the asteroid debacle, Imp One is close enough to Duna for some early observations. Back on Kerbin, LLC engineers have spent the months prodding the asteroid sample in an attempt to figure out how it could teleport. So far, all they have achieved is to get a lot of scuffmarks and finger smears all over the sample. It appears to be just a lump of rock. They're starting to think that they need a new approach.

Imp One is on course for a close flyby of Duna. There won't be any long term studies in orbit, just a few hours of experiments and a small correction burn. Material exposure tests and imaging gravitometer measurements are the highest priority.

A short burst of ion thrust takes Imp One onto a collision course so that the disposable experiment pods can be decoupled without leaving space debris.

The mystery goo containers will impact Duna, thus leaving space perfectly pristine, and Duna contaminated with unknown sticky glop.

Seeberry Kerman checks, double checks, and triple checks that all experimental data is stowed before decoupling the science pods.

Another short burn takes Imp One onto an escape trajectory via close flyby of Ike.

The disposable experiments have already been disposed of, but there are plenty of instruments left for observation of Duna's moon. A close view of Ike is a strong secondary objective.

As the pod departs the Duna system, Seeberry takes one last EVA to collect data from the gravitometer, and to inspect the craft. There's no good transfer opportunity for return to Kerbin for another hundred days, and then the transfer orbit will take another 300. Seeberry will have a very long wait before setting foot on solid ground again.

[geb]

Gryphon Station - Expansion

Gryphon station has proved to be useful in the past, and could be so again. It has only a single docking port though, and limited stocks of RCS fuel. This is a problem that can be solved.

The Gryphon Expansion Module mounted on a Kelpie Booster stands ready to launch.

The booster carries the expansion module into LKO easily, and from that point on all maneuvres are done on RCS thrust. The module is huge and the thrusters are tiny, so this takes a lot of patience. The module doesn't have much battery capacity, so it can only operate on the daylight side of Kerbin. Docking involves a long series of small maneuvres.

The expansion module attaches correctly, several days later.

To serve a role as orbital transport hub, Gryphon will need a larger habitation section. Another Kelpie launch takes up a particularly troublesome payload.

The Habitation Module carries no solar panels, and has limited battery life, so it must make rendezvous with the station as rapidly as possible.

Half an orbit later, the station carries a second expansion module.

After its previous crew departed on a rescue mission, Gryphon has been sitting empty. It will need an active crew if it is to do anything of use. The three most experienced crew are selected, mostly so that their orange spacesuits can be removed from the equipment room where they make everything look untidy.

Gryphon Station is now fully equipped and operational.

Imp One - Return, Recovery

400 days after departure from Duna, right on schedule, Imp One makes reentry at Kerbin carrying Seeberry Kerman and a collection of science data.

The pod touches down in the western oceans, and is recovered without incident. The entire pod is hauled back to the LLC engineering and science complex for analysis, along with all its data records and samples.

LLC engineers, inspired by pictures of Ike looking so grey and round, have invented the wheel!

[geb]

Imp Three - Bringing Back Bigger Samples

Leaving a rock in high orbit is messy, and the LLC tracking station staff are starting to complain that seeing it rotate the wrong way on their screens is making them dizzy. It's time to tidy up.

Imp Three is an identical copy of Imp Two, except that this one doesn't have Jeb on board. This is considered a major safety upgrade.

Rendezvous in retrograde high orbit is now becoming a standard procedure, much to everybody's annoyance.

As before, capture with the claw is uneventful. Seeberry Kerman is ordered to pay close attention to any irregularities in the connection, both to prevent another explosion and to find out what the cause of the first one was.

The second claw and docking ring are still active and accepting commands. Seeberry reports that it will be possible to free a docking node on the asteroid, and requests a new mission objective.

Seeberry's request is approved. He continues the burn to drop the asteroid's orbit, but now with a new objective in mind. The broken scraps of docking ring will not be needed for this.

Over a week later, the rock is in low Kerbin orbit. The maneuvres to achieve this were complicated by the Imp spacecraft relying on solar power, so any burn made on the night side of the planet is put under extreme limits. Imp Three carries enough battery capacity for a 5m/s burn while loaded with THM-614. 5m/s is not even remotely good enough for major orbital changes, so inefficient burns a quarter orbit away from periapsis have to serve instead, each burn limited in duration by the movement around the planet.

Eventually the rock is low enough for another ship to take over. Seeberry takes one more sample for the labs on the ground, and then departs back to safety on the ground.

Once again, a Kelpie crew taxi serves as general purpose local orbit craft, and takes on a role as tugboat. The station taxi has far greater reserves of monopropellant than the Imp, so it is used to steer THM-614 in for docking.

The secondary claw is observed showing extreme wobble, and the plan is almost put to a halt. Bob onboard Kelpie one reverses the approach until this problem can be addressed. Somehow, the pivot mechanism is interfering with the hold that the claw has on the surface of the asteroid, causing it to drift loose while the pivot is free. Bob nudges the rock back into place, and the pivot is put into permanent lock.

LLC structural engineers are extremely unhappy with the connection, but THM-614 appears to be stable for now. Gryphon Station has a new sample to study.

Bob and the Kelpie return to their original docking port, restoring the station to full functionality.

[geb]

Dryad One - Departure

In an attempt to get a better return on investment for all the rocket hardware, the Longbeast Logistics Company is looking into options to branch out of simple goods transport. With a near monopoly on spaceflight, it's time to open up some new revenue streams with space tourism.

With this in mind, it's time to send out some probes to find new and exciting holiday locations. Meet the Dryad atmospheric probe:

It has long been suspected that Eve is a paradise world, covered in tropical jungles and tall pink men with tiny heads. If Dryad One can provide surface data proving the hypotheses, Eve would be a perfect holiday destination.

Onwards!

Banshee Tourbus Prototype - Camping on the Mun

While the first Dryad probe is in flight, LLC begins experimenting with vehicles suitable for carrying tourists. Gildas and Kenrim Kerman are selected as test victims for a camping trip on the Mun in a prototype vehicle - the Banshee lander.

A standard Kelpie booster forms the first two stages, with an extra Banshee Propulsion Module stage providing greater range, and the Banshee lander itself carrying the test tourists.

Carrying slightly more than its design payload mass, the Kelpie booster lumbers slowly into the sky.

The first stage engines strain to carry their load through the turn prograde even at full throttle.

The Kelpie booster alone cannot carry Banshee into orbit, so the third stage has to perform part of the circularisation burn. It has plenty of fuel for the job.

As part of the test, Gildas and Kenrim are given no direct control over the landing. The lander has to be suitable for use by untrained tourists, and so Banshee is piloted by a probe core concealed in the lower hull. The long journey in cramped conditions has not left the test victims happy, and now a complex maneuvre outside their control is leaving them very uneasy indeed.

Despite their worries, Gildas and Kenrim touch down safely aboard Banshee, and begin evaluating the Mun as a holiday destination. They have been instructed to take a long camping trip, enjoying the sights, playing games, hiking, and singing songs around the campfire.

Task one, enjoy the sights. Check.

Gildas and Kenrim report that the LLC patent campfire simulator for use in vacuum environments is rather silly. They sing songs anyway.

Two weeks later, the campers climb back aboard Banshee and activate the return autopilot. It is only at this point that they are told that Banshee has no parachutes, due to its lightweight construction and tendency to fall apart under moderate stresses. The autopilot will be landing them on rocket thrust alone.

Both of them agree that there is a lot of fun to be had on the Mun, and that it was an enjoyable holiday overall, but the accomodation and travel need some serious work before paying customers go anywhere near them. Gildas submits an expenses claim for having his spine straightened again after the jolt on landing. Kenrim immediately takes time off to go on a proper holiday, claiming that he needs to go somewhere other than a two metre wide metal cylinder.

The marketing team in charge of the tourism project find a few souvenirs, and hand them over to the research team. There's a lot of work to do in every department.

Dryad One - Eve

190 days later, Dryad One reaches Eve.

The cute little interplanetary propulsion stage has not been used. For this trip, the Unicorn upper stage provided enough delta-v for the entire trip, and no corrections were needed.

Goodbye engines, goodbye solar panels. Hello heat shield. Hello atmosphere.

The Dryad probe carries no batteries in its final active stage, and so it drifts slowly to the surface of Eve as a dead mass under its parachute. It sits, waiting for sunlight.

As morning on Eve breaks, the results start transmitting back to LLC head office. Shortly thereafter, the sound of ten thousand "Visit sunny Eve, the paradise planet!" posters being shredded can be heard, amid much arguing, cursing, and throwing of office furniture.

[Scootaloo]

I've had that spaceship-destroying asteroid bug before. I did a really ambitious thing where I launched a 3.75m booster and docked it to a class C, then docked a bunch of little probes around it each with 3 2.5m SAS units. The little units survived but the booster got destroyed, leaving only the claw like this case. I think if too much force is applied to an asteroid, things start exploding.

[geb]

I've had that spaceship-destroying asteroid bug before. I did a really ambitious thing where I launched a 3.75m booster and docked it to a class C, then docked a bunch of little probes around it each with 3 2.5m SAS units. The little units survived but the booster got destroyed, leaving only the claw like this case. I think if too much force is applied to an asteroid, things start exploding.

That sounds like a different problem. It might not be a bug at all. Components are supposed to break if you put too much force through them!

My little ion engine could not give enough force to teleport an asteroid though.