Gumdrop. An almost stock Apollo Replica (with a stock lander)

[John FX]

This is Gumdrop, named after the Command Module on Apollo 9. (It used to be called Kerpollo but there are so many kerpollos...)

It is 420T and 685 parts

It uses stretchy tanks, a mod written so well that even though written for 0.21 still works fine in 0.23.5. If you use career you will have to edit the cfg to add the parts to the tree manually. If you use stretchy SRB or proc parts then the craft will load but you might not have the parts available to build with in your VAB.

Stretchy Tanks

EDIT : This was made before the great moving to curse and the loss of the oldfiles (all hail the archive). I will be rebuilding this craft using stretchySRB parts at a minimum.

It also uses Procedural Fairings to shape the craft otherwise it would look ugly but function the same.

Procedural Fairings

Honeyfox has made a functioning interstage adapter which you will need and is here

Stupid_Chris`s Realchutes are just wonderful and they are used in the command module. They can be found here

I have recently started using RasterPropMonitors and so I have covered the craft in cameras, hopefully in places that give similar video shots to the original missions. It is possible to do a full Mun mission using only the cameras fitted and RasterPropMonitors. There is a version without the cameras for those of you who don`t want to use RPM.

You can get RasterPropMonitors here

Features (WIP)

2 stage escape system with protective cover for the CM (press backspace to abort then Action group `6` to jettison protective cover and activate parachutes)

stock engines and stock lander (released as a subassembly for your own rockets)

5 engines on stage 1 (max thrust 7500Kn)

outer 4 engines provide gimbal

4 retro (comprised of 2 seperatrons each at reduced power)

working interstage (containing ullage engines of correct thrust and duration) allowing engine thrust through interstage

5 engines on stage 2 (max thrust 1060Kn)

4 ullage and 4 retro

1 engine on S-IVB (max thrust 215Kn)

4 ullage (in two stages, first for separation, the second for TMI burn)

3 man crew, two man lander

A.L.S.E.P. (WIP) main/power unit, comms unit, utility light unit and seismic detector

Lander (WIP) has TWR 0.3 (2.0 on Mun)

CM has comms antenna activated with action group `2`

How to fly. (with camera and seat suggestions for the best shots)

Mechjeb :

when on pad

Set desired altitude to 80km, turn start 8km, turn end 65km, turn 39% turn OFF `limit to terminal speed`, Saturn F1 ain`t got no throttle! It punches the sky and the sky gives in!

Set up your RPM monitors I set mine up so the kerbal at the back has many information screens and one camera and the two up front have many cameras and just a couple of info screens. They take all the screenshots anyway...

Press space to stage. Your engines will turn on but should do nothing. (Camera 8, nav, obt)

activate ascent computer Your throttle should increase

stage when throttle is at 100% to release the clamps. You have approx 4-5 seconds of fuel stored on the pad at 100% thrust to allow time for the craft to settle before releasing the clamps.

Your craft should start to turn at 8km

When stage 1 fuel is at 25% remaining or you are at 10km activate action group `0` to cut center engine and extend stage 1 burn time (camera 8)

Stage 2 can be a little unresponsive so try to damp any movements before staging

stage at fuelcutout to separate (camera 7,8)

stage again before ullage engines deplete (3.5s) to activate stage 2 (camera 7,8)

when flight of stage 2 is under control and event free then stage to release the escape tower and protective cover. (Camera 1, Cockpit right seat)

You can now look outside of the windows The protective cover can be seen falling back to kerbin out of the right hand window

stage at 40km to release the interstage once the possibility of air turbulence causing problems has diminished. (camera 7,8)

When stage 2 has 25% fuel remaining activate action group `9` to shut down the centre engine and extend burn time. This should happen before 55km

stage at engine cutout to separate (camera 6)

stage again before ullage engines deplete (4s) to activate the S-IVB.

orbit will be attained with about 950 Dv left in the S-IVB

make a node with 872 Dv prograde and adjust the time of the node so you have a FRT to Mun and a Pe of about 8km

execute the node.

stage to separate the CM from the lander and eject the fairings

activate RCS and thrust forward

when a few m from the lander, stop forward motion, turn off RCS and SAS and press `s` to rotate your craft.

select the docking port as your target and `control from here` for the docking port on the CM

thrust forward and dock.

stage to release the S_IVB which will thrust slowly away from the lander.

you are now ready to enter Mun SOI

enter SOI and adjust your Pe to be around 10km

circularise

move two crew to the lander

separate

move away from the CM

adjust your Pe to be about 6.5Km and ensure your Pe is on the day side of Mun (don`t go lower than 6.2Km, the highest point on the Muns equator)

When close to your Pe set your translatron to keep altitude and stop your H/S movement. You should end up at 6.4km and motionless.

activate `land anywhere`

land.

deactivate descent engine.

When ready activate ascent guidance

stage

attain orbit (remembering to launch to a heading of 180 degrees)

rendezvous

dock.

transfer crew.

then face retrograde, activate SAS and burn RCS (`h`) to drop your Pe to -1

undock ascent stage of lander.

use RCS (`n`) to lift your Pe to 10km again.

make a node that is 280Dv prograde and shift the time until your Kerbin Pe is under 40km

execute the node

when in Kerbin SOI recheck your Pe and if under 20km, stage to separate the landing pod from the SM.

If your Pe is over 20km and under 40km then stage once your Pe has dropped below 20km (so you avoid debris)

If your Pe is over 40km, make your Pe under 40km

face retrograde and turn off SAS

enter atmosphere (if not already done)

when under 10km (radar, not altimeter) activate chutes

land

mission complete.

Flying by hand?

It`s usually a fairly uneventful flight, everything has been tested many many times and works well. Try to stage at all the points mentioned in the mechjeb instructions above and you`ll have a nice mission experience similar to the ones described by the actual astronaughts (maybe not Apollo 13)

Turn at 8km,try to be at 45 degrees for 15km don`t be turning much by 20km so staging is smooth (stage 2 has low torque and gimbal) don`t let your Ap get too far ahead of you and level off by 55-60km

The design came from seeing these images and wanting to see these images in KSP (or as close as I could make them)

Regarding fuel levels, the only sensible way to set them is to have the stages run out at the analog places in kerbins atmosphere. For stage 1 I decided this should be 20km or just after and for stage 2 it should be once Ap is on the edge of space and the craft is nearly in orbit but low enough so stage 2 will burn up. the S-IVB should have enough fuel to raise the craft to orbit, perform a TMI using a FRT which is 872Dv and then have an option of aiming for the munar surface or deep space. I have left just under 100Dv in the S-IVB for this purpose.

Apollo 13 for example had 2200lbs of spare fuel on top of the extra fuel to guide the spent stage into the moon and some fuel for what was called three sigma adjustments

I took reports from Apollo 11 as a guide for roughly how much fuel to carry. It appears the Apollo 11 was coming in to land under mechjeb, sorry Apollo Guidance Computer control and the autopilot was going to land them in a rocky area so Neil Armstrong took semi manual control and guided them to a better landing spot. They had 15 seconds of fuel left when they landed. So, to replicate that (and be able to fly the same thing if we wanted) there must be enough fuel to land from a low Pe orbit, plus hover for about 30 seconds, plus have 15 seconds of hover time left in the descent stage. This matches with other reports I have read that said there was about 60 seconds of fuel on top of the minimum to land so that another landing area could be chosen if needed.

I wasn`t too harsh with the descent stage fuel levels. The game is supposed to be fun

There is a 2 seat rover included although it is buggy

The ascent stage has enough fuel to get into orbit and match planes with the CM but not much more. You should try to launch near to the CM.

The CM has not much more fuel than it needs. You will need about 280Dv to get home so make sure you leave yourself roughly this much. You have some RCS in case of emergencies...

here is a mission I did recently

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Here is the ejection system in action

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Here is the lander in action

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Craft files soon.

Edited July 8, 2014 by John FX
updated OP