Six Six Science - Space & Aeronautics Agency Archive [craftfile updated 2016-04-25]

[Majorjim!]

Just now, Frank_G said:

Your hinge not only works, it is also very reliable... incredible and simple design. But still i hope, we will get a controllable stock rotating joint some time in the future.

I'm very happy you like it! I hope you put it to good use someday. I was just happy to find a replacement for the ant so quickly, my heart sank when my hinges froze on release..

[Frank_G]

Just now, Majorjim said:

I'm very happy you like it! I hope you put it to good use someday. I was just happy to find a replacement for the ant so quickly, my heart sank when my hinges froze on release..

It already serves me well... the loading ramp really sits very accurate in place, using that hinge. I have simplified it a bit (only 3 thermometers per end and the crafts floor plating to keep it from falling to the ground) as i only need a single downward motion. The small size is awesome. It does not disturb the crafts geometry at all and fits into the payload bay at ease.

[Majorjim!]

Just now, Frank_G said:

It already serves me well... the loading ramp really sits very accurate in place, using that hinge. I have simplified it a bit (only 3 thermometers per end and the crafts floor plating to keep it from falling to the ground) as i only need a single downward motion. The small size is awesome. It does not disturb the crafts geometry at all and fits into the payload bay at ease.

Yup that's exactly how it should be for a ramp that falls once, just three each side needed, possibly two depending. And yeah it takes up almost no room at all does it! Just as a hinge should. For 360 degrees that star shape is need though. Great work man.

[Frank_G]

The lack of aerobraking capabilities of the transfer vehicle really created a fuel problem, questioning a safe return of the crew. A proper solution might be transporting the lander in a custom cargo rack with an inflatable heatshield, instead of an aeroshell. After the transfer vessel has reached a safe orbit, the lander is ejected together with the complete cargo rack. It can reuse the inflatable heatshield during its descent, making the originally planned aeroshell obsolete. Once reaching safe speeds, the cargo rack will be jettisoned, using some separatrons. I dont know, if this will be the final solution, but i will have to test it at least.

[Majorjim!]

could the DTV just perform a propulsive capture? It looked like it had a lot of dv.

[Frank_G]

It has (around 5 km/s when fully loaded), but it will not only fly a mission to Duna, it will visit Ike as well. One additional transfer and capture can burn through reserves quite fast. I have never flown such a massive craft to Duna. Once i have all the data from the mission, i can start to optimize the craft and mission profile for things to come.

[Frank_G]

I fiddled around for hours with no good result, until finally, i came up with this rover. Small enough to fit inside the frontal payload bay of my Konstellation lander with enough clearance below the wheels, that they dont wobble the lander apart. It is powered by RTG and features a wide range of onboard scientific equipment.

Jebediah deploying the rover.

Driving around.

[Frank_G]

Six mapping satellites on top of a T2 Pegasus III launcher. It will bring all satellites into the Duna system, where they will perform detailed scans of Duna and Ike, prior to the main mission launch. Once released, each satellite will autonomously move to the desired orbit around its target. 

The T2 Pegasus III launcher, like the 2 other launchers of the T2 Pegasus series, features two twin packs of SRBs. Two SRBs are mounted on a special frame, so they detach, using only a single decoupler per pair. This way, the four boosters can be separated in one stage without any chances of uncontrolled collisions.

Payload closeup*  - all 3 different satellites use the same base, the only modification has been done to the top satellite. It receives power from an RTG instead of solar arrays:

The payload just before fairing assembly - 2 sets of satellites have been mounted:

The fully assembled launcher has been rolled out to the launch pad, awaiting launch SOON™:

Next up will be the construction of the Ike lander.

*The scanning antennas are from the SCANsat mod and the only modded parts, that will be deployed during the whole mission - I really like the functionality of SCANsat. I never play without it

[Frank_G]

I finally got the new Ike lander, surface habitat and exploration rover together. Actually, the rover is a mobile science platform and habitat - delivering all 3 needed functions in one. During descent, the lander carries the rover - attached to the bottom of the lander. The rover will be dropped off prior to touch down. The first design included a shell for the rover and strut mounted landing legs (with enough clearance for rover ground deployment), but it made the lander unnecessarily heavy and somewhat too bulky for the needed 2.5 m diameter transport profile.

The rover also features ore extraction devices and storage tanks. They wont be used during the first mission, but will be put to use during upcoming missions.

The top of the lander - the return vehicle - will take off, using a separatron powered ejection system, before switching to the four monopropellant engines for orbital ascent. The base of the lander, which will stay on Ike later, together with the rover, will serve as a ground to orbit relay station for missions to come.

I also found some time to create the mission badge:

Testing the Ike lander - Bill and Jebediah trained getting in and out of the vehicle and checked for overall accessibility of all lander features:

The autonomous rover was delivered to the site for more testing:

All types of rover equipment were put to extensive tests:

The complete lander setup - During the testing it showed, that the lander base wasnt powered after lift off of the return vehicle, so single deployment solar arrays were added. They will most likely be exchanged for an RTG in the final design.

 

Edited May 5, 2016 by Frank_G

[Frank_G]

Testing transport frame for the Ike lander. It comes together... The mission vehicles will be ready soon.

Edited May 5, 2016 by Frank_G

[Frank_G]

Re-designed the Duna exploration rover. I got rid of the cage, cleaned the whole design up and added a second seat, while keeping the original size of the rover. It now is lighter, has less parts, carries 2 kerbals and fits into the lander like it predecessor... pleased. Time for some real world experience now

[Majorjim!]

Just now, Frank_G said:

Re-designed the Duna exploration rover.

I love it!

[Frank_G]

Thank you very much!

Just returned home with a todo that came to my mind... so i attended to it and added a rear loading ramp to my Konstellation Rhino Mk. II lander. I also fitted the new rover to the front payload area. Works like a charm (after i reset the spring settings on my landers landing legs... made it hop around the pad - while being funny the first time, it is just annoying... please Squad... fix it!)

[Frank_G]

Ok... it can de-orbit and land safely on Kerbin... so it can on Duna as well. Thankfully, there wont be any water on Duna

And by the way... Scatterer and Environmental Visual Enhancements in combination are awesome... Thanks to the 64 bit version, i can now use them on OSX.

[Frank_G]

Finally... after more than 6 weeks of planing and building, all crafts are done - sorting the action groups and decide which actions were linked to them and which are simply staged was not the most fun part... Now all that is left to be done, is to fly the mission... piece o´cake... rock?

Here is the fully assembled craft:

Now it will be de-assembled into 10 parts, each of them fitted onto a launcher and brought to LKO for final assembly. Once the mission is over, i will upload the craftfiles, of course

[Majorjim!]

Awesome work man, truly! 

 Put together a big album of pics of the launches and mission! 

[Frank_G]

For those who are interested:

DTV Stats

Parts: 1.110

Weight: 377 tons

dV of fully loaded transfer vehicle: 4.852 m/s

The fully assembled craft was rendered at impressive 20 fps on a 4 year old iMac (GTX 680 MX - 32 Gigs - Maximum settings - graphic mods installed)... KSP 1.1.2 really does its job.

Payload

Konstellation Rhino Mk. II lander - Mission: Land on Duna - Includes surface exploration rover, separate surface habitat, science platform and Duna Ascent Vehicle

Oktopod Mk. III lander - Mission: Land on Ike - Includes mobile habitat rover with science equipment, resource extraction tools and Ike Ascent Vehicle

Solar Bird I - Mission: perform high altitude survey of Duna - equipped with all sorts of science experiments - Solar Bird one requires assembly, once in orbit

Mole Science Carrier - Mission: Help in orbital construction of the Solar Bird I, then circle Duna in high orbit to perform various scanning operations, before returning to the main craft

Crew habitat - a special designed habitat, consisting of command pod, living area and science lab. It can break in two halves in case of emergency, jettisoning the capsule and the living quarters. It has propulsion, can de-orbit and is equipped with everything, the 6 crew members will need to survive in case of a disaster. On safe return to Kerbin, the same mechanism is used to bring the brave Kerbonauts back to the surface of Kerbin. The break-up system is constructed to be re-fitted later, so everything left behind, can be used again.

Modular approach

Once achieving orbit around Duna, the DTV will break up into separate craft. One will stay in Duna orbit as relay station, one will bring the Oktopod to Ike and back. All parts can be reconfigured during the mission - tanks, engines and payloads can be re-arranged at will. 

15 minutes ago, Majorjim said:

Awesome work man, truly! 

 Put together a big album of pics of the launches and mission! 

Thanks a lot   Feels good to see everything come together after so much effort (and fun of course).

And i will create an extra thread for this, with tons of pictures and detailed mission description.

Edited May 7, 2016 by Frank_G

[Frank_G]

Just to tease: Launched 3 parts yesterday and 3 today.

First launch - Engine block 1 on top of a T4 Kerberos SLV-Heavy, the main workhorse of this operation. The SLV-H will deliver 7 of 10 DTV-Parts to orbit. Exceptions are the small heat shield, which will be delivered by a T2 Pegasus I, the Rhino lander, which will be brought up by a T4 Kerberos SLV-SuperHeavy and the Solar Bird. The launch vehicle for the Solar Bird has not been decided yet. Probably the wings will be split in two as well, to decrease both launch and storage profile. Yeah - last minute changes... 

Second stage separation during Mission 2: Delivery of central inline fuel tank and primary solar array - Ullage motors pull the two stages away from each other, before the second stage ignites.

Engine core has been successfully assembled

Next launch is scheduled for tomorrow, which will bring up the habitat. Detailed documentation and more pictures of all launches will follow in a different thread.

Edited May 8, 2016 by Frank_G

[Frank_G]

Almost done. Habitat, secondary and primary payload delivered.

Next will be the heat shield for the finish. Then its up to determine how the Solar Bird will be brought up.

[Frank_G]

Duna Transfer Vehicle assembled.

[Majorjim!]

Just now, Frank_G said:

Duna Transfer Vehicle assembled.

 

That is staggeringly awesome! How did the in orbit construction go?

[Frank_G]

17 minutes ago, Majorjim said:

That is staggeringly awesome! How did the in orbit construction go?

Thanks a lot :D. I was expecting the assembly to be a wobbly and laggy mess, but actually, KSP 1.1.2 seems to have much better docking than in 1.0.x and earlier and the performance is incredible, regarding this detailed vessel. No more watching parts dance around each other. If aligned properly, they dock on first touch. I had to re-redock 2 parts, because not all ports connected, but that was totally my fault. I used Docking Port Alignment Indicator only for the heatshield, as i wanted its probe core to be in place 100%. All multi-port dockings were done by pure visual control.

[Majorjim!]

It's an amazing piece of work mate. I know how hard it is to design, plan and execute such a complex vehicle and mission. Very few people can do something like this, in such an elegant and clever way. Have all my respect and admiration!

[Frank_G]

And the new solar bird. I went from 1.25 m to a 0.625 m base and used smaller parts for the wings, while keeping the proportions as best as possible. The result is far better to transport, delivers more TWR while keeping the deltaV. I had to drop a goo canister due to size, but 2 will still be enough.

[edit] Sadly we dont have any stock electric propellers, making this plane nothing more than a cool looking thingie... i really would have liked a true solar glider. But at least the show will be cool  

Testflight around Kerbin

Transport profile... it only needs a proper attachment rack now. But thats something for later this week.

 

10 minutes ago, Majorjim said:

It's an amazing piece of work mate. I know how hard it is to design, plan and execute such a complex vehicle and mission. Very few people can do something like this, in such an elegant and clever way. Have all my respect and admiration!

I feel honored . Thanks a lot.

Edited May 9, 2016 by Frank_G

[AdrianK.]

 The Diamondback Raider Mk. II is awesome, I really like the shape of it