Modded 64k Career game UPDATE Year2 Day36 (09/05/2017)

[Gauga159]

That Skybolt V probably would have some use even now like a cheap kerbal&cargo launcher

[Shania_L]

14 hours ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

Now to answer the most important question: how many Kerbonauts does it take to change a light bulb?

Ha!, I had a quick look at Squads config and I couldn't see anything about a light switch, but with Vens revamp and who knows what else affecting the stock parts it could be added/ not added/ removed or maybe it needs a crewman aboard, I have no clue.

 

4 hours ago, Gauga159 said:

That Skybolt V probably would have some use even now like a cheap kerbal&cargo launcher

Skybolt V doesn't have the payload capacity to put a manned capsule in orbit, (possibly Jebbidiah on a command seat, but please don't give him that idea!). As for payloads, it can put a 1 tonne payload into orbit, providing ~1-2KDv is included. Once you have done the basic LKO science there is no incentive to retain a launcher with this limited capacity. Especially as the only slightly more expensive (once you consider its recovery) HoundDog Ic provides a 1.5 tonne service which requires no inbuilt propulsion.

SkyBolt was and still would be useful however for sub-orbital part test contracts, however I haven't been offered or accepted many of those as they are pretty simple and tbh a bit dull once you have a launcher that can manage it.

In reality the necessity to launch many lightweight satellites provides a market for cheap light launchers, cubesat swarms or low orbit observation types. KSP doesn't really have an equivalent to this, the sat contracts tend to be at really high altitudes, perhaps if you could bias this contract to choose orbits very close to Kerbin then you could simulate the cheap/disposable private satellite launches.

[Gauga159]

oh yeah this is 64k

[CatastrophicFailure]

22 hours ago, Shania_L said:

Ha!, I had a quick look at Squads config and I couldn't see anything about a light switch, but with Vens revamp and who knows what else affecting the stock parts it could be added/ not added/ removed or maybe it needs a crewman aboard, I have no clue.

 

 

I just checked this, also with Ven's, and I got lights. Does yours have the little window covers? Maybe it's a version thing, I don't recall anyone doing light up windows before 1.0.

[CSE]

On 19/04/2016 at 0:17 AM, Shania_L said:

I always thought the cupola windows lit up, cant seem to turn its lights on ... ehh details.

Have you accepted any particularly adventurous contracts recently? Your kerbonauts may be hiding under the snacks locker pretending there's nobody home.

[Shania_L]

On 21/04/2016 at 4:45 PM, CatastrophicFailure said:

I just checked this, also with Ven's, and I got lights. Does yours have the little window covers? Maybe it's a version thing, I don't recall anyone doing light up windows before 1.0.

No window covers, most of my other crewed parts do light up windows, hitchhiker, stock lab, 1man and 3 man capsule and cockpits etc.

19 hours ago, CSE said:

Have you accepted any particularly adventurous contracts recently? Your kerbonauts may be hiding under the snacks locker pretending there's nobody home.

None recently :), however there is no need to pretend nobody is home, Pandora Mun Station was launched unmanned.

[Shania_L]

Ok, and we are back after a week in 1.1, where my "sounding rockets" kept attaining escape velocity, I am always surprised by how easy stock is. Back to a proper challenge again

 

Day 358, KSC

Spoiler

 

The second part of the Mun resources program is launched, a lander is required to get Kerbals to and from the surface regularly. In contrast to Decender I and II which were disposable 2 stage designs, Decender III will have to be a fully re-usable single stage design.

Liftoff of a HoundDog III carrying the Decender III lander headed for the Mun.

The performance increase from recent R&D unlocks is showing itself in easier launches, motors have gained thrust, ISP and reduced mass making them all-round better performers.

HoundDog puts Decender into a circular 150km orbit with 600Dv remaining in its upper stage (11,967kg)

A single stage Mun lander requires a significant Dv capacity, around 1500-2000 for landing and another 1500 for launch back to orbit, Decender III has 3,800Dv available to it, so no transfer stage is necessary, it will self ferry to the Mun.

The upper HD stage is burnt dry initiating the 2270m/sec transfer burn, it successfully firs its retros at Ap to burnup in Kerbins atmosphere.

Decender III seen here leaving LKO, 2,120m/sec still in its tanks will be more than enough for capture and orbital manoeuvres at Mun.

Decender III is built in triplicate form, 3 separate single seat capsules (still lighter than the 2 kerbal lander can) 3 fully retractable solar arrays, 3 legs and 3 AIES KeroLox motors. It also carries 3 removable KAS canisters for transporting equipment to or from the Muns surface.

 

Day 359, Kerbol High Orbit

Verity IX crosses the SOI boundary between Kerbin and Kerbol (still doing 10,000m/sec relative to Kerbin) the multispectral imager it carries has not previously been performed in Kerbol high orbit, so 52 science is transmitted home.

Day 360-361, Mun Orbit

Spoiler

 

Decender III arrives in Mun SOI, 610m/sec capture burn at Pe for a 452x24km orbit leading to an intercept with Pandora Mun Station in a little under 1 orbit.

Only 110Dv is required to match velocities and dock with the station. Decender still retains some 1,300m/sec aboard.

Contract complete, 10 Kerbal station in Mun orbit. (2x hitchhikers + 1 cupola on PMS and 3x Mk1 lander cans on Decender.)
211,104 Funds, 80 Science, 150 Reputation.

With a probe core aboard Decender providing control, the booster stage is finally able to decouple from the station and de-orbit itself.

1,537kg, 1,333m/sec Midlands biome = 1.37GJ, or nothing new we haven't seen before no new science from Flash or Bang-o-meter.

Mission cost 148,091 Funds, 0 recovery.

 

Later on Day 361, KSC

Spoiler

 

Jedke and Billy-Bobdo from the science division team up once more with Engineer Orgun Kerman. Lifting off from the KSC in a slightly modified version of the Ascender V craft they head up to Pandora (LKO)

With a reduced service bay, Ascender Vb sacrifices its KAS and extra lifesupport tanks in favour of a secondary payload stored below the orbiter.

Burning up to the default 150km parking orbit Ascender detaches from the upper stage whilst it still retains 450Dv.

With the fairings removed the science payload can now be seen, it has no control or stability of its own so the upper stage has to decouple and manoeuvre itself out of the way before Ascender can flip around to dock to it.

126m/sec burn to intercept Pandora at 500km followed by ~150 to match velocities and dock.

The science payload it docked to Lilith II's nose port, whilst Ascender docks to one of Pandoras main trunk ports.

The science payload consists of a small KeroLox tank with docking port and medium Klaw on opposite ends, 4 radial KAS canisters contain a variety of equipment for the upcoming mission.

(217parts 80,500kg)

With 5 Kerbals already living at Pandora Jedke, Orgun and Billy-Bobdo transfer directly over to Lilith II and prep for immediate departure. (This requires EVA as Lilith is docked to a refuelling port but also because it has no crew access to either of its own ports).

Pulling away from Pandora, Lilith weighs in at 17,903kg, with 4,500Dv and 26 days of life support for its 3 Kerbal crew.

Mission cost, (Ascender Vb) 169,859 Funds 0 recovery.

 

 

Edited May 15, 2016 by Shania_L

[CatastrophicFailure]

Wait, how'd you dock the clawed science package if it has no control of it's own? 

Also, how's your framerate doing with a good-sized station like that?

[Shania_L]

1 hour ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

Wait, how'd you dock the clawed science package if it has no control of it's own? 

Also, how's your framerate doing with a good-sized station like that?

The docking took a little careful alignment, but it was done in a similar manor to how I got it from the booster to capsule. Align it as close as possible with Ascender, undock and get Ascender out of the way, and then undock Lilith to move up and grab it.

Frame rate is not too bad, there is a noticeable slowing, but not a slideshow by any definition, my game runs permanently with the MET clock yellow (which I believe means I'm not running at 1:1 time) with even the most basic of craft, I blame persistent lifesupport monitoring but I have no proof of that.

 

[CatastrophicFailure]

6 minutes ago, Shania_L said:

The docking took a little careful alignment, but it was done in a similar manor to how I got it from the booster to capsule. Align it as close as possible with Ascender, undock and get Ascender out of the way, and then undock Lilith to move up and grab it.

Ah, the easy way. For a minute there I was wondering if you moved the whole station or did a kinda backwards "line up & toss it that way then get the heck out of the way & pray" thing.

[Shania_L]

 

Moving the station? I cant even imagine how horrendous that would be, it can rotate around its vertical axis fairly well (the RT autopilot keeps Lilith pointed at Kerbin all the way around its orbit) but it is so off-balanced and completely lacking in any lateral thrust that it would just tumble.

 

Day 362, Low Kerbin Orbit

Lilith II needs to make a serious inclination change, and also time its orbit to match an intercept. The cheapest way to do both of these in one go is to put it onto a highly elliptical orbit and perform the plane change as far from Kerbin as is feasible.

A 1,810 m/sec burn transfers it onto a 500 x 23,650 km orbit, This altitude provides not only a reduction in burn for the plane change (only 1,130m/sec) but also gives us an intercept in 4 full orbits.

Day 362, Mun Orbit

After 24 days orbiting Mun, Helmdar IId 1,2 and 3 have finished the full resource scan. No science or contracts are offered for this and there is little point in maintaining 3 identical single purpose probes. All three of them carry more than sufficient fuel reserves to de-orbit and collide with the Mun.

Being lightweight and low velocity none of them raise any new science from the Bang-o-meter and they all fell on Midlands or Polar biomes so no new Flash-o-meter results either.

Day 363, Kerbol Orbit

After recovering from an almost save breaking NaN attack, Verity IX is lining up for its final orbital adjustment on its way to Jool.

Towards the right of screen is the Kerbin/Mun system with Minmus on the far right. This is only 5 days out of Kerbin SOI.

The 56m/sec burn ties down the intercept not only to a nice low Pe at Jool, but with around 2,500Dv remaining aboard a burn in the Jool system will be possible which will result in a low Lathe pass as well.

This map view shows the intended burn and resulting close passes both to Jool and Lathe. Verity will actually still retain around 250Dv after this, and there is potentially a Val intercept shortly after Lathe.

This will be a very short duration mission, as you can see there is less than 1H between the manoeuvre and the Jool Pe, Even after the 2180m/sec breaking burn Verity will cross the distance between Jool Pe and Lathe Pe in under 2H.

This mission however is a one shot deal, as you can see after a single pass of each planet it will be swallowed into the giant planets atmosphere. If communications should fail at the extreme range and the burn cannot be performed then Jool will fling the probe out of Kerbol SOI entirely.

VAB report

The VAB has been tasked with designing a craft which will attempt to boost the local broadcast abilities and maintain communications with Verity IX despite the craft itself possessing a fairly underpowered transmitter. With the recent upgrade of the R&D facilities and acquisition of new technologies, a new and larger fixed dish the Comntech I has become available, with a broadcast range of 7 Tm it is capable of reaching anywhere in the Kerbol system, the down side is that it weighs a tonne, literally a tonne per dish. So naturally the satellite will have 6 of them.

As such the Centus VII communications hub came into being, capable of independently maintaining links with every known planet in the system it renders all existing Centus craft in Kerbin orbit obsolete, or it will do when we can actually afford to build them. Centus VII costs 313,000 Funds each, and we need 3.

 

Short report this week, what with the NaN attack and the naturally fiddly nature of 3Yr long interplanetary manoeuvre nodes, half the time the game was simply denying a Jool encounter at all, I had to run it in time warp simply to get it on rails to stop the flickering.

[CatastrophicFailure]

Hmm. A wider initial pass at Jool might nab an advantageous encounter with Tylo there and save some dv.

[Shania_L]

12 hours ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

Hmm. A wider initial pass at Jool might nab an advantageous encounter with Tylo there and save some dv.

Other than waggling the node around and seeing if any encounters show up purely by luck, is there any way I can tell what encounters I should be able to get?

The low Jool pass is providing a lot of turning (and I assume) slowing-down-ness, passes above a few Mm are practically straight through orbits, this probe is not arriving slowly! Essentially I could pick any of the Joolian moons and blast through its SOI as I pass, but only the very low Jool encounter prevents Verity from being flung entirely out of Kerbol SOI.

[CatastrophicFailure]

That low Jool pass is also speeding you up quite a bit, too. It's difficult to play around with nodes until you actually get into Jool's SOI, and the errors that creep in during time accel will likely throw off any made before then. 

I think if you adjust your peri-Jool a bit higher once inside (or just outside) of Jool's SOI, you can arrange an encounter with Tylo. That can give you some mad gravity braking if the timing is right with very little dv expended to get there. Also, don't be afraid of a retrograde initial pass at Jool either. Once you're in a wide, stable orbit within the system, you can usually get encounters with all the moons for peanuts. 

[Shania_L]

@CatastrophicFailure

I'll see what I can get when I'm nearer Jools SOI, (best part of 3 years away atm) but from what I was seeing, even a retrograde Jool pass is destined to end up on a Kerbol escape trajectory, I haven't tried a Tylo intercept yet, is it capable of applying that much breaking effect?

 

Day 364, KSC

Spoiler

 

A nice easy contract is lined which will provide a chunk of Funds which the Centus division has already allocated towards the replacement of the LKO communications relays.

A HoundDog Ic lifts off just after nightfall as Pandora passes overhead.

Carrying an experimental module loaded with a repeat set of equipment for Plant Science in Kerbin Orbit, duplicate science or otherwise there is a nice big paycheck for doing it.

Following the standard Pandora intercept course Houndog separates its payload in a circular 150km orbit. The payload boosts itself up to an intercept with a tiny 131m/sec burn. A further 150Dv is used to match velocities and dock with Pandora only 3/4 of an orbit later.

With the experimentation started, we shall know in 8 days if cress seeds can be used to form a basic renewable source of rocket fuel.

Meanwhile, the HoundDog booster left in 150km orbit has plenty of Dv remaining (1,142m/sec) this will allow a steep and hopefully more accurate re-entry profile.

Well that was the theory anyway.

Coming down on the mountains (@9,500m) West of KSC, HoundDog didn't really stand a chance of remaining vertical on that slope, and with the probe core destroyed, nothing can be recovered.

Mission cost 45,222 - 2x940 recovered.

 

Day 365, High Kerbin Orbit

Spoiler

 

Lilith II has completed 4 of its highly elliptical orbits, swinging out to 23,650km this final time they line up for a 1,128m/sec inclination change burn.

Final orbit of 1,337 x 23,651km @ 54 degrees, an intercept is lined up for the next day at Kerbin Perapisis. Lilith retains 1,564Dv aboard.

 

Day 366, LKO

Spoiler

 

Lilith performs its matching burn of 965m/sec in the dark shadow of Kerbin and the massive bulk of Moros, the captured asteroid becomes visible to the crew looming up behind them.

Lilith ends up burning nearly all of its manoeuvring fuel lining itself up for a capture in the dark.

Dawn breaks as Kerbol rises over the limb of Kerbin, and veteran scientist Jedke Kerman is the first to venture out of the crew cabin.

Making a quick scout of the area, he takes some basic surface samples of the C-Type asteroid and pokes about at the Nyx I probe which is stilll anchored here before ducking back into the cabin.

After conversing briefly with the two other crew members and KSC mission control it is decided that the mission should be completed in as short a time as possible. On their current course Moros will take them out beyond the orbit of Minmus and will not return to LKO for another 42 Days, Lilith does not have lifesupport for 3 kerbals for that long ... It hasn't passed the notice of the two scientists that Orgun as the only engineer aboard has been keeping his hammer suspiciously close by. Therefore Lilith will have to leave Moros as soon as possible to increase the chances of the crew being returned alive.

Orgun (Blue suit Engineer) and Billy-Bobdo (Yellow suit Scientist) are the next out on EVA, Orgun to assemble the science instruments which had been transported in the KAS canisters, Billy-Bobdo   umm .... helped?

Orgun assembles the instruments around two pylons on opposite ends of the rock to maximise the results of the asteroid sounding experiment.

Jedke remotely activates all the science instruments from Lilith as Orgun and Billy-Bobdo return to the cabin.

As a final act Jedke, being the highest ranked Kerbal on the ship, makes a second EVA to collect the results from all the instruments. Then, a little over 3 hours after intercepting it, Lilith undocks from its science module leaving the now empty module attached to the asteroid. Burning all of its remaining RCS fuel Lilith drifts away to clear some room for a proper main burn.

With only 715m/sec Dv remaining aboard Lilith will require some aerobreaking to lower its orbit sufficiently, but it does have directional shielding on its main components so it shouldn't be too bad. Plus the 'not wings' have a tendency to create nice amounts of drag in an atmosphere.

 

Day 367, High Kerbin Orbit

Lilith burns 150Dv to lower its Ap from 310,000 to 139,000km this will drastically reduce the flight time to Pe from 48 to 15 Days which is quite a relief to the crew who have 21 Days of life support remaining.

Day 368, Minmus Orbit

Spoiler

 

With a gap in operations caused by 5 Centus craft under construction, and 6days before any other actions need to be taken. Mission controllers were looking through current operating craft looking for something interesting to do, when they noticed the Verity VII-Mi probe.

Verity VII was the orbital spectrometer launched to observe impacts on Minmus' surface, it still had 3 of its 4 impactors remaining. Fun times.

Getting impacts in the Slopes, Flats and Lesser Flats biomes the spectrometer records plumes for 50 science each.

With the probes being 42kg and managing to get up to around 2,700 m/sec on impact each probe registered around 160MJ, which is nowhere near the energy released by the Lunic III transfer stage so no new data was released from the impact seismometer.

The Verity VII-Mi mothercraft suffers from the same design flaw as the Mun variant, no reaction control system, and with its entire fuel supply expended already the craft is going nowhere. It is still able to observe impacts (intentional or otherwise) and record science.

 

 

Edited June 5, 2016 by Shania_L

[CatastrophicFailure]

On 5/15/2016 at 2:15 PM, Shania_L said:

I haven't tried a Tylo intercept yet, is it capable of applying that much breaking effect?

You can get a crazy amount of gravity braking from Tylo if you encounter it just right. Even if you encounter it just wrong. But yeah, 3 years is a bit far out to calculate it accurately. Jool's SOI is so huge, once you enter it you should have plenty of time to play with maneuver nodes until you get it just right. Ideally, say you're coming from around the 6 o'clock position, you'd want to encounter Tylo as it's at the 3 o'clock so it essentially swings you around backwards. Should be easy to at least capture into Jool orbit, then the tricky part becomes avoiding Tylo. And there's nothing like skimming a kilometer or two over the surface at 64k velocities. 

 

On 5/15/2016 at 2:15 PM, Shania_L said:

and with the probe core destroyed, nothing can be recovered.

Wait, what? How does that prevent recovery? Don't you still get the option in the altimeter drop down?

[Shania_L]

20 hours ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

 

Hmm, interesting, I would have assumed gravity assist to be directly related to mass which is why I hadn't considered going for a moon first, and went straight for Jool. I'll look into Tylo when I get a it closer.

Without a probe core the parts recover but for 0 Funds ... not entirely sure how it works differently for spent boosters because when they get harvested (in flight) they have no probe core yet I get paid. Surface debris however, no probe core = no Funds.

[CatastrophicFailure]

4 hours ago, Shania_L said:

Hmm, interesting, I would have assumed gravity assist to be directly related to mass which is why I hadn't considered going for a moon first, and went straight for Jool. I'll look into Tylo when I get a it closer.

Without a probe core the parts recover but for 0 Funds ... not entirely sure how it works differently for spent boosters because when they get harvested (in flight) they have no probe core yet I get paid. Surface debris however, no probe core = no Funds.

It's bout relative motion. Jool is moving relative to the sun, so it can only change your orbit relative to the sun. You need to interact with something moving relative to Jool to change your orbit relative to Jool. NASA's got this down to an artform, that's how Galileo and... and... whatever the flarp is orbiting Saturn work. Excuse me, I think my brain just shut down for the night...

[EbonJaguar]

Heya!

Still reading all of this (on page 5 a the moment), it is very fun to go through!
A question though, if I may. All of your craft have those nice lights on them. What mod are they from?

Thanks, and I hope you continue all of this.

[Shania_L]

16 hours ago, EbonJaguar said:

Heya!

Still reading all of this (on page 5 a the moment), it is very fun to go through!
A question though, if I may. All of your craft have those nice lights on them. What mod are they from?

Thanks, and I hope you continue all of this.

Hey thanks, glad you are enjoying it.

The small "button lights" are from the B9 aerospace mod. The two sizes of lights, in addition to the airbrakes (no stock airbrakes in 0.90) are the only parts I have from that massive mod.

I fully intend to continue this, expect an update after I have had some time over the weekend. The number of games I used to start and abandon before any long duration missions were completed ... keeping this forum thread has kept me honest and I fully intend to let the interplanetary probes do their thing!

[EbonJaguar]

2 minutes ago, Shania_L said:

Hey thanks, glad you are enjoying it.

The small "button lights" are from the B9 aerospace mod. The two sizes of lights, in addition to the airbrakes (no stock airbrakes in 0.90) are the only parts I have from that massive mod.

I fully intend to continue this, expect an update after I have had some time over the weekend. The number of games I used to start and abandon before any long duration missions were completed ... keeping this forum thread has kept me honest and I fully intend to let the interplanetary probes do their thing!

Awesome! Thanks for the answer. Now to start decking my ships out with them...  The other parts look great, too!

[Shania_L]

Back after a busy week, but here we go...

 

Day 373, High Kerbin Orbit

Spoiler

 

After a few days of very little action, Lilith II finally arrives at its Ap manoeuvre node.

At an altitude of 139Mm we can complete the entire plane change from 52 to 0 degrees as well as lowering the Pe to 63km for only 228Dv .... Perhaps our Ap should have been higher on the outbound journey?

With only 343m/sec remaining aboard and around 2,250m/sec required to drop into a 500km orbit, a hefty aerobrake or two will be required. Only 8 days to go until Pe.

 

Day 375, Low Kerbin Orbit

Spoiler

 

Pandora station, With literally 30K Funds in the bank everybody has been awaiting the completion of this latest science project .. or more accurately awaiting the payout that recovering it will unlock.

With 5 major craft already in production for the Centus division tying up hundreds of thousands of funds, the KSC has had to hold off on any other craft production. (Except a cheap Hector III because starving Kerbals are dead Kerbals, and dead Kerbals don't finish science projects)

After the best part of 9 Days research in the orbiting science facility the 5 crew members of Pandora have finished studying plant seeds and pack all their notes and whatever remains they could find into the capsule.

After drifting away from the station to a safe distance the capsule burns for a 55km Pe and hopefully a landing somewhere near the KSC half an orbit later.

Having decoupled its motor to a destructive entry, the capsule has survived the worst of the re-entry phase and is actually looking likely to land pretty close to the KSC

Safe touchdown of the capsule, only 190km short of the space centre. recovery crews collect the capsule and sell the parts for 2,323 Funds.

Contract Complete, Plant Science in Low Kerbin Orbit, 534,823 Funds, 24 science, 10 Reputation.

Mission cost, 45,222
Recovery 2x941 + 2,323 = 4,205 (~17,000 Funds lost when HDIc booster destroyed on landing on a mountain)
Contract 534,823
Profit = 493,806 Funds

 

Day 376, KSC

Spoiler

 

With a few more coppers in the bank, an open docking port and lower part count at Pandora it is time to send the crew another re-supply run.

A HoundDog Ic lifts off from KSC through low cloud cover at midday.

Following a standard Pandora intercept profile Hector III launches with the station practically overhead. Circularising into a 150km orbit Hector detaches from HDIc and immediately boosts itself into a 150x510km orbit intercepting Pandora 2/3 of an orbit later.
Meanwhile HDIc burns 80m/sec lowering itself into a 110x107km orbit, retaining ~1kDv for its own re-entry.

Hector intercepts and docks with Pandora, transferring 80 Days of lifesupport it immediately detaches and burns all its remaining fuel to a destructive re-entry.

HDIc lines itself up for a re-entry near KSC, coming in at a much steeper angle than the science module earlier it still seems to be falling short.

They might only be tiny wings, but somehow this thing is almost managing to fall sideways.

With the chutes deploying at 7,500m all the fun is cut short and HDIc settles down to fall in the much more traditional and sophisticated tail end first manor ... landing just under 100km from the KSC

Despite being almost able to see the KSC from here, the recovery crew still claims it is 6,031km away ... and only puts in for 54% recovery value.

Mission cost, 49,505

Recovery 2x941 + 16,939

Total = 30,684 Funds to put 80 Days of Lifesupport to Pandora.

 

 

Edited June 5, 2016 by Shania_L

[CatastrophicFailure]

Body lift FTW. 

How much does that thing weigh empty? It's got no shortage of fuel, perhaps some stub wings and a lightweight jet and you could drop it right on the space center.

[Shania_L]

14 hours ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

Body lift FTW. 

How much does that thing weigh empty? It's got no shortage of fuel, perhaps some stub wings and a lightweight jet and you could drop it right on the space center.

The empty HDIc booster in the VAB weighs 2.8t.

I could try to make it almost a flight capable craft, but its payload is already pretty tiny (~1.5t to 150km) adding bigger wings and a jet/intakes etc and trying to balance it would eat into that considerably.

The easiest solution (or simplest anyway) is to time my re-entry burns better.

[Shania_L]

Day 377, KSC

Spoiler

 

Frustrations at the inefficiency of our communication system when trying to control probe craft within the atmosphere of Kerbin has lead to a decision to replace/upgrade the Kerbin omni-net.

The current system makes use of 3 Centus II relays positioned at 15Mm Keo-stationary orbit, these craft utilise short range dish antenna to communicate with eachother and the planets surface, additionally they carry a single 16Mm omni antenna. This is fine for craft in orbit that can deploy an omni antenna capable of reaching the minimum of 15Mm required, however these long range antenna are fragile and not usable in atmospheres. Also, the system provides no cover at the higher latitudes towards the poles.

The Centus division has been charged with replacing this system with a network which can be accessed by craft only using antenna deployable inside the atmosphere. The most powerful antenna capable of this is the AIES ComnTeech DF-RD which can reach 6.4Mm, however it is heavy and as such the lighter and more capable AIES ESC-EXP will be the target model, it has an atmosphere safe range of 3.2Mm and an extended fragile range of 12.8Mm. (Neither of which would reach the current relays)

Centus VIII is the solution we will begin putting into place today. The new network will utilise 12 simple low orbit craft split onto two separate highly inclined orbits. This will provide high latitude reception, as well as the capability to connect with short range antenna from the surface of Kerbin.

The first launch, Centus VIII K-Alpha launches from KSC following a 45 degree North trajectory. Inserting into a standard parking orbit of 150km it has used surprisingly little of its fuel. As you can see the craft consists of the 6 probelets mounted on a (2KDv) transfer stage, however the HDIII upper stage still has over 1KDv aboard, waste-not want-not we will see how far that fuel will last.

Boosting up to the operational altitude of 1,909Mm soon after circularisation each probelet will be ejected into a unique orbit and will self circularise after a single orbit resulting in even spacing around the planet.

1,909,000m is not an accidental altitude. at this altitude a circular orbit takes exactly 2 hours, with 6 probes that gives 20minutes separation between overflights. Therefore to create the required separation each probelet needs to be released with an extra 20minutes to its orbital period.

At the 1,909Mm Ap the HDIII stage burns to raise Pe, the first probelet is jettisoned onto a 1,909x601Km orbit (1H40M)

(Thanks to distant object enhancement you can see the other 5 probes as a chain of white lights between the tips of the 2 antenna)

With a single toroidal fuel tank of MMH/NTO and an ant engine the 300kg probelet has 2,000m/sec Dv on its own. Little more than a probe core, batteries sufficient to last the night, a single sun tracking solar panel and the twin telescopic omni antenna (capable of reaching 19.2Mm) the most important part however is the funky purple mood lighting. Purple has been scientifically proven to enhance communication skills.

With additional probes released into 2H, 2H20M, 2H40M, 3H and the final one into a 1,909x6,585Km 3H20M orbit, the HDIII upper stage finally runs dry.

Over the next 3-4 hours as each probelet returns to the 1,909Mm target altitude they circularise to exact 2H orbits (exact altitude isn't as important as orbital period)

A slight issue with the HDIII upper stage was that even from the peak of its 6,585Km Ap its triple retro system wasn't able to reduce its Pe into Kerbins atmosphere ... fortunately however it was carrying a (hastily re-assigned) de-orbiting stage!

Who needs to actually dock craft together? just mash them together, full thrust works wonders for 'blending' fragile metallic structures into one!

With the first inclination filled, the 6 probes are activated and assigned new names (Centus VIII K-Alpha 1, Centus VIII K-Alpha 2, etc imaginative huh? Centus for a communications craft, VIIIth model, K for Kerbin, Alpha is the first inclination, and a unique identifying number)

Next up, Beta!

Mission cost, 117,458 Funds, 0 recovery.

 

Day 378-379, KSC

Spoiler

 

Exactly 6 hours after the launch of Centus VIII K-Alpha, K-Beta roars off the pad, headed 45 degrees North. North? surely you meant South? Nope, the planet has performed half a revolution so I can repeat exactly the same mission profile again (12 hour rotation of the planet despite 'days' being recorded as 6hrs long)

This will result in the Alpha and Beta crafts 45 degree inclined planes crossing at 90 degrees over the equator, for neatness sake.

Alpha launched at sunrise, Beta launched at sunset.

Now if you thought this was just going to be a straight repeat report, you don't know me very well. I had a mission profile that worked pretty well, proven to get the job done, so naturally I try and do this one differently!!

Instead of launching a single probelet into orbits with 20M increases in period, resulting in perfectly spaced probes after a single orbit, I could save fuel by only using 3 different orbits, and letting some probes go around twice.

So! 1,909x601km orbit (1H40M) release 2 probes.

1,909x1,909km (2H) release 1 probe into the final operational orbit, this probe wont have to do anything.

Then finally drop the remaining 3 probes into a 2H20M orbit.

This method saves a good chunk of Dv, by not requiring probes to be boosted up to 6+Mm and then to re-circularise from these higher orbits the probelets themselves retain a greater proportion of their fuel stocks. This results in the HDIII upper stage having sufficient fuel to safely dispose of itself and the (un-used) transfer stage.

However the orbit track is not as pretty as the one with 6 different altitudes... but I'm told that isn't supposed to be a major consideration.

With 2 probes circularising after a single orbit, 2 more after a second orbit and the final probe getting into position three orbits later the Beta inclination isn't activated until well into Day 379. once the probes are re-named to match their brethren in Alpha inclination the new Centus Low Orbit Omni Net is fully operational!

Shown here are all available omni (non-dish) connections. The two craft connecting from 10Mm orbit are the twin Centus V Duna/Eve relays as they carry 16Mm omni antenna, the other craft in the 10Mm orbit are Centus III's (Mun/Minmus relay), they connect directly to Kerbin by dish. Quite why the trio of Centus II at 15Mm haven't connected is a little baffling, they connect to eachother and Kerbin by dish, but do carry a 16Mm communotron 16 ... evidently they are powered by black magic and this is yet another reason to retire them ASAP!

This network is capable of communicating with 3.2Mm omni antennas sitting on the surface of Kerbin at any latitude, it can be expanded with a Delta inclination on a 90 degree polar and Omega 0 degree ring, if necessary, however I do not think that will be needed.

Mission cost 117,458 Funds 0 recovery.

Total network cost 234,916 Funds

 

 

Edited June 13, 2016 by Shania_L