[Proc.Fairings Only] Athena Mun Landing, With Aegis Lander

[tjsnh]

I wanted a Mun mission that used a lander/capsule paradigm, but my previous designs had all used the lander carried on top of the return capsule. This was my first mission with the lander "below" the capsule. The only mod used is procedural fairings to hide the lander, as I placed a strong emphasis on a rocket that "looked nice" - without too many boosters hanging off the side, etc. The mission uses a profile somewhere between the US Apollo mission, and the Soviet Soyuz/LK mission. Multi-stage rocket to the Mun, one kerbal EVA transfers from the Athena capsule to the Aegis lander, which uses the Mun orbit retroburn engine as it's main descent engine and uses RCS for the final landing approach. The Aegis lander launches from the Munar surface, leaving it's base and instruments behind to save weight, meets up with the Athena in Munar orbit where the Kerbal EVA's back to Athena carrying the science experiments with him.

The Athena capsule, the (hidden) Aegis lander, and Zeus booster, on the pad ready for launch:

Setup the launch with 3 Kerbals in the Athena pod, leaving the Aegis lander empty. Launch on SAS only (don't use any RCS until reaching Munar orbit).

The solids burn out around 8000 meters, around 250 m/s - after jettisoning the solids, speed will drop to around 200 m/s , don't worry, this is fine.

Begin your gravity turn at about 18000 meters, only dipping 20 degrees.

Try to keep your angle of attack steady, but the rocket is huge/long so it'll dip a bit - no huge worry, the mission has plenty of spare fuel.

At about 50000 meters, the first stage will burn out - space to the next stage and hit 1 to deploy the Athena's solar panels.

Hold your angle of ascent steady between 30 and 40 degrees, stage 2 will burn out right around 100,000 meters. Space to stage 3, the Skipper engine will take you all the way to the Mun.

I won't go over the minor details of navigating to the Mun, but stage 3 has a decent amount of fuel so if you have to make a few adjustment burns don't worry. If you run out and have to hit stage 4 en-route it's not a panic, stage 4 has lots of fuel to go around.

Once in the Mun's SOI, establish a circular orbit around 110,000 meters. In my sample launch, I spaced to stage 4 after slowing for orbit but before circularizing. Stage 4 has lots of fuel, so circularize your orbit and relax for a few - you'll want to make sure your EVA kerbal transfer is on the "light side" of the Mun.

Once you're ready, space to stage-off the procedural fairings panels hiding the Aegis lander.

EVA a Kerbal over to the Aegis, in my test mission it was Bill. After Bill is ready, you can detach the Aegis (along with the stage 4 engine) by decoupling the docking node on top of the lander.

Use the stage 4 engine for your descent burn. If you've run a clean mission, you should have lots of gas - in my first run with this rocket, I had a little over 3/4ths of a tank at this point in the mission.

At about 2500 meters above the Munar surface, space to stage/detach the poodle and fuel tank from the Aegis lander, drop your landing legs, TURN ON RCS, and get ready to land! Make sure to ditch the tank/poodle off at an angle so you don't land on top of any wreckage.

The mission is designed for the Aegis lander to finish the rest of the descent using only RCS engines for retro burn, so don't stage into your regular LOX engines. Use RCS to carefully control your descent, and touchdown on the Munar surface.

Once you've landed, do your science and plant the flag. I created this mission in career mode, so the frame of the Aegis has a science experiment or two attached. If you're going to use this in career mode, you'll want to change up the science experiments to match your own progression. Press 2 to extend the ladder before you exit out of the Aegis.

Once you're ready to return, wait for the Athena to be in a good orbital position for a link up, throttle up then space stage into your engines. This will detach the Aegis crew pod from it's frame. At this point, the Aegis has VERY little weight to it, so small throttle adjustments will have a big impact.

My typical, but admittedly not 100% optimal, profile is to launch mostly vertical until my Apoapsis intersects the orbit of the Athena waiting above, fast forward up, then circularize my orbit using the Aegis' engines. I usually use the engines in the Aegis to perform the rendevouz, but if it proves troublesome don't hesitate to switch back to the Athena for the rendevouz, it's got plenty of fuel to spare.

I don't normally bother to link up for a docking - it takes too long, but if you want to the Athena has plenty of monopropellent so if you would like to retrieve the Aegis from Munar orbit feel free. I ususally just get close, then EVA over (don't forget to take your science!) but this has the disadvantage of leaving the Aegis in Munar orbit as spacejunk.

Once your Kerbal is safely aboard the Athena capsule, you'll want to stage into your return engine if you haven't already. This will ditch the leftover reaction wheel, and give you the oomph to get back to Kerbin.

Once you get back to Kerbin, land normally and pop your chutes around 2000 meters to be safe. Of course, if you're landing above the mountains or something you'll need to hit the silk sooner.

I use the Athena capsule (and everything above the Aegis) as the standard "cookie cutter" capsule in my Career save, which is why it's got some of the design features that aren't required for this particular mission.

Full mission album here:

http://imgur.com/a/Yfw3A/embed#1

You can download the .craft file here, from curse:

www.curse.com/shareables/kerbal/223205-athena-and-aegis

Or from Dropbox (the curse link seems to be having issues):

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fca60fhbc6e4eab/Athena Mk I Capsule With Aegis Lander.craft

Edited August 12, 2014 by tjsnh
Fixed download link

[Billyk88]

What size is that fairing base mine isnt that big how did u get that?

[Billyk88]

Ok i figured out the size thing but now i cant figure out how to get my panels to eject. Everytime i hit the bottom i hear the eject sound but panels dont budge. Plz help. Thank u

[sysigy]

Your downloads on curse don't work mate. Someone else has commented on it on your curse site.

Can you fix them, this looks like a cool little lander

[tjsnh]

Odd, they worked when I set it up .. I'll share them with dropbox or something.

[Billyk88]

I figured it all out how to get the fairings to pop off and everythin. Thank u

[tjsnh]

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fca60fhbc6e4eab/Athena Mk I Capsule With Aegis Lander.craft

Still not sure why the curse download is busted, seems the file was removed without any notice. *shrugs*

The dropbox link should work, just tested it.

I'll upload another this evening when I get home of just the Aegis lander (as a subassembly) for those who don't use the procedural fairings mod.