Manned landing on Callisto in RSS

[von Ziegendorf]

Welcome back. I've been playing KSP with Real Solar System mod for a couple of months (not all the time ) to gather experience and to develop super-heavy launch vehicle capable of sending considerable payload to Jupiter. The plan is to land 3 Kerbonauts on Callisto, the furthest (in-game) moon.

Mods I'm using: RSS with Planet Factory, Deadly Reentry, TAC LS, FAR, Joint Reinforcement, MechJeb, Kerbal Alarm Clock, Clouds Plugin (but some old version)

Short version of the fligthplan:

1 Cargo ship launch - rocket carrying lander and fuel needed for return trip.

2 Elliptical orbit - to save more fuel, departure burn was divided into parts. At first it used 500m/s from the last stage of the launch rocket, and then 2300m/s from the transfer stage.

3 Earth departure - after about a day, transfer stage fired once more to add 1600m/s and leave Earth SOI.

4 Flight - it's simplified version of the Galileo trajectory utilizing 600m/s deep space manouver (DSM) at Ap.

5 Earth gravity assist - after more than two years cargo ship passed 2000km above Earth and set the course to Jupiter.

6 Course correction - instead of tweaking Earth flyby it was easier to perform another DSM to get an encounter with Callisto.

7 Crew launch - about 3 years after cargo ship left Earth, crew is launched into orbit.

8 Earth departure - same as cargo craft, crew performed departure burn in parts.

9 Jupiter capture - cargo ship burn its fuel above Callisto to close its orbit around Jupiter.

Here ends the first film.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/XTy4EWM5Oeo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Also there is part 1 and a half in which you can see cargo ship performing gravity assists to establish orbit around Callisto.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/9NdlpysFQ0Y" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Here is the most epic photo I've ever taken:

Second part of the fligthplan:

10 Crew capture - crewed ship performed direct propulsive capture above Callisto.

11 Docking with cargo ship - after plane change manouver, those two ships docked together and pumped fuel to crew ship.

12 Landing - crew moved to lander and descended to the surface.

13 Exploration - lander spent 4 months on Callisto.

14 Takeoff and docking - shortly before return window, crew lifted off the surface and met with return ship in orbit.

15 Departure - ship set its course directly to Earth.

16 Earth arrival - about 3 years later, 30 minutes before the reentry, return ship burned all remaining fuel to lose as much speed as possible.

17 Reentry and landing - after braking manouver CM reentered atmosphere at speed ~12400m/s and landed safely near the Australia.

Total flight time was about 2180 days, which is 6 years.

Thanks for watching

Edited May 22, 2014 by von Ziegendorf

[von Ziegendorf]

Up, now with the release of part 2, the mission to Jupiter is finally complete!