KT-1 Space Trials.

[Frozen_Heart]

So to test out my new mothership I decided to swing by the Mun for some fun!

The initial launch went smoothly though the boosters were a bit on the small side and I had to use a chunk of the payloads fuel to achieve orbit. I used a pair of mainsails on each booster in preference to the LFB sue to the greater fuel efficiency and thrust. Another orange tank on each would have done the job. The newly named CJS Inspiration circularised at a nice and neat 250km orbit. This altitude was chosen due to being high enough to rendezvous with easily while still only requiring a modest dV budget to get there.

The chosen payload was designated to be a reusable lander, a pair of communication satellites, and a manned science rover for research purposes. to balance out the rovers weight I also added a fuel tank on the opposite side. It would be drained and discarded when the Rover was detached. As I forgot to add Jr. docking ports, a small nose mounted adaptor was sent up to connect the probes onto. The lander and probe adaptor were sent up first on a LV-3E rocket. Rendevous went well and the first section was added on without a hitch. a bit of excess fuel was also added from the launcher to the Inspiration.

The next stack was carried up by the same rocket class. The probes, rover, fuel tank, and an RCS tug were launched to meet up with the mothership. The fuel tank was placed on first and the operation went smoothly. However I then found that the probes had no batteries and so had to dock with solar panels extended. I may have snapped one of these off while docking it to its assigned node...

Next came the rover. I found to my horror that I'd forgotten the lower docking port on it and the tug occupied the only available spot. It took me a couple of goes but I managed to align the rovers trajectory with the tug and then then disengaged and moved out of the way. The rover floated the last 10m or so unaided and just managed to hit the docking port. The tug was deorbited after this.

Bill checks out the damage on the probe.

Now all that was needed was the fuel tanker. This time I launched on a LV-3H, a tri core version of the same rocket. 18 tons of fuel was moved up to the Inspiration though I would only need a fraction of this. This stuck to one of the unfilled side nodes and filled the tanks of the mothership. The majority was left in orbit for future missions.

All ready to go!

Time to burn! The Inspirations high TWR meant that the burn to the Mun was fast and accurate. I chose a free return trajectory out of habit and aimed for a 14km periapsis. Retroburning was also dead on and the orbit ended up perfectly circular. I'd chosen 14km as it required least dV for my lander. With the rover attached it would be pushed to its limits in both TWR and dV.

Once I'd chosen a landing spot that didn't seem to bumpy I prepared to disengage the rover. Bill and Ryan moved to the lander in preparation and I hit undock. BOOM! An explosion shook the ship and the rover vanished into a rapidly expanding cloud of debris heading on a polar suborbital trajectory. Luckily the Inspiration was mostly unharmed. However I found that the docking port was damaged and the bits of rover remaining would no longer disengage.

Look like this was going to be a rover free mission. The kerbals were pretty disappointed as they had been looking forward to the idea of whizzing about on the Mun.

I disengaged one of the probes at this point and moved it up to a 50km orbit. the balancing fuel tank was also drained into the mothership and ejected as it no longer had a use.

The lander sent itself on a suborbital trajectory and the rest of the descent was uneventful.

The fouled docking node.

The landing when smoothly and without the rover I had plenty of fuel to chose a landing spot. the lander touched down near the rim of a crater with some shiny looking rocks. The kerbals clambered out onto the Munar surface. Bob got straight down to the serious business of mission reports and flag planting while Genenand buzzed off to prod a particularly interesting rock formation. The pair had plenty of time to explore as the Inspiration wouldn't be coming round again for a while. Genenand may have got a bit too excited with his jet pack and sent himself rolling across the surface, narrowly avoiding going off the edge of the crater. Bob was not amused...

Eventually the time came to pack up and go. The kerbals bundled back on board and blasted off. The ascent was fast and near perfect, meeting up with the mothership and docking within only a few minutes. The lander was undocked and left in its orbit for use in future missions.

Next I set off for Polar orbit to deploy the final comms satellite. The Inspiration had plenty of spare dV for the task once the lander had been drained of its remaining fuel. Once again a 14km orbit was chosen and the probe adaptor was also jettisoned having served its purpose. On the return to polar orbit I misread the Navball and ended up in a retrograde orbit. Not a problem and it demonstrated the Inspiration's impressing range for a single stage mothership. Once everything was in order I burned for home, setting the aerobraking altitude for 36km.

The aerobraking was anticlimactic, requiring two runs to slow enough to burn the rest of the way. The ships very low drag construction means that it needs to dive deeper into the atmosphere to slow down to low orbit speeds. I circularised at 250km with 0 inclination ready for the ship to be refuelled and for the kerbals to go home. However the fouled docking node resulted in the Inspiration being retired from service and deorbited once Bill, Bob, and Genenand were safley back on solid ground.

Overall KSC declared the mission a partial success, with the KT-1's spaceworthiness being proved and most of the mission goals being achieved. However the loss of the rover and damage to the Inspiration meant that there was an overall loss of credit compared to if the mission had been done with conventional rockets.