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

[CatastrophicFailure]

I think it has something to do with your rockets not looking like this: http://i.imgur.com/lWXasn4l.jpg

I'll second this. Shania_L, your designs and attention to vehicle lineage give it all a very "real" feel. I wonder if there's some inherent subtlety in 6.4x that encourages incremental changes to lifters like that.

[Shania_L]

@Randazzo and CatastrophicFailure, Thankyou for your kind words

I really hope this doesnt blow any lofty preconceptions you have about me (as if ), but I go for the similar launchers for a number of reasons;

Kerbal Construction Time, there is a hefty bonus to the time taken to build components that you have previously built. So having a common launcher enables you to form something of a production line and build them repeatedly faster than you could purpose built craft.

Ease of use, I use sub assemblies for the lifters, and having the same name with a number after it is an easy way for me to tell which launcher is bigger than another. Big number = big lifter

And for a bit of my own curiosity, I like the challenge of seeing just how far I can go with a fixed payload size. HoundDog Ib for example gives me 3 tonnes in LKO... so I try to see what I can achieve with only 3 tonnes. And even with the common launcher as I push along the tech tree RealFuels increases the performance of the motors, so the Ib I use now is arguably a better craft than the Ib I first built.

There is also a costing factor, when you are paying out 50-60K funds on a single launch multiple failures hurt, thankfully I have only experienced one total loss mission to date. Keeping a launcher or style of launcher that I am comfortable flying enables me to 'feel' when it is all going wrong long before the fiery bit is pointing upwards. I know that pushing the Ib through the sound barrier at too low an altitude sets the sas and aero fins into resonance and the whole ship bucks about like a wild cat, so I keep her throttled back and steady until later in the ascent.

As for any effect from 6.4x, I think it is probably not the mod itself that brings out that trait, more that people with that trait are drawn to the mod. *Massive generalization incoming* People who are drawn to a greater challenge from KSP fall into two categories;

Those who go full realism with the RSS Earth system reliving the glory of Apollo/Soyuz etc, etc. Essentially a spaceflight simulator.

6.4x on the other hand treads more on the gamey side of the line, maybe taking inspiration from irl craft but on the whole you work on a blank canvas.

We'll have to see how far I can push the family line for a possible HoundDog III

[Ten Key]

Don't sell yourself short. Your rockets and spacecraft have a very clean, very distinct aesthetic that makes them stand out in all the right ways. I can't wait to see what you have planned for the kerbaled flights.

[Shania_L]

Day 178, Minmus Escape trajectory

Spoiler

As the burn at Pe has now been completed and Verity V-Mi climbs out of Minmus' gravity well the predicted flight path for the next phase of the mission stabilizes to the point where the Kerbol -> Kerbin burn can be programmed.

In 15 days time Verity will activate all of her remaining science instruments before turning about face and performing a 476m/sec burn approximately 1 hour after the SOI change. This will lead to her re-intercepting Kerbins SOI a further 3 hours later, 34 days after that she should hit Kerbins atmosphere for a fiery aerobraking maneuver and recovery.

 

Day 181, KSC

Spoiler

The launch of the third and final Lunic I landers occurs at midday today, an identical design to Ib, Ic instead utilises shocking pink lighting ... just to be different.

Performing its transfer burn while still on the first orbit Ic retains 340Dv in its tanks. Estimated transfer time just over 2 days.

 

Day 182, Mun Orbit

Verity V-Mu has now managed to complete its survey of all the Muns biomes, transmitting the last data home. However its polar orbit is currently in entirely the wrong orientation to Kerbin to allow an escape burn to be performed, KSC decides to allow the probe to wait out the time until Mun progresses further around Kerbin and the orbits re-align.

Also, they were rather distracted by a new launcher being prepped that very day.

Later that same day, KSC

Spoiler

Sat upon the launchpad is a HoundDog II, this craft represents the first in a multipart attempt at a manned Mun landing.

Current lifters are simply not beefy enough to allow even a single Kerbin craft to get to, land and return from Mun so a cunning plan has been devised to split the mission into two main parts.

The un-manned transfer stage, 'Medea', being launched today and the to-be-manned lander/crew vehicle 'Decender I' which will follow, once it has been built.

Medea will perform both Kerbin departure and Mun departure burns, Decender I is a single Kerbal, two stage lander and ascent vehicle which will re-dock to Medea in Mun orbit after leaving its landing stage on the surface of the Mun.

Back to today however and the Medea launch represents not only the first part of putting a Kerbal on the Mun, it is also the single largest/heaviest/most Dv vehicle that the KSC has built (or even designed).

Weighing in at 98,500Kg on the launchpad, HoundDog II is feeling bloated, the twin solid boosters and Skipper running at full power drag it off the pad however, once 100m/sec is achieved the skipper is throttled back to maintain a 1.2:1 TtW ratio.

T+78 seconds and the two solid motors have burned through their entire fuel supply already. The skipper is slammed back to full throttle and barely manages to achieve 1.05:1 TtW although this rapidly improves with altitude and weight loss. Mass now at 62,000kg

The solid boosters both carry parachutes and will be recovered, for minimal value, but it also aids build times.

T+296 seconds the Skipper has fully drained the core stage of KeroLox. Having just breached the limits of the atmosphere at this point the payload fairings are ditched at the same time as the core stage is. A single KW Vesta VR-1 KeroLox motor emerges from within the interstage fairing and takes over from here. Burning at full throttle and angling high to try and gain as much altitude as possible before Ap is reached. Mass at core stage jettison 20,000kg

T+492 seconds, 130Km and ~4,000m/sec the upper stage is now exhausted and Medea is released, activating communications and solar panels its twin AIES Galaxy VR-2 motors fire up, these also burn KeroLox and will have to burn the last of the way to orbit. Mass at upper stage jettison 11,000kg, this is the fully fueled mass of Medea.

T+640 seconds, Medea completes its crawl into orbit, achieving a 129x150km orbit (with Medea currently at Pe) this will be circularized with a burn at Ap. Medea is little more than a pair of fuel tanks, a docking port and engines. Weighing in at 6,300kg this is officially the heaviest mass to orbit achieved to date.

Medeas tanks are still just over half full, her insulated forward tank can carry 6,400 litres of LOx, whilst her lightweight rear tank can fit 3,700 litres of Kerosene. Without a payload she has over 10K Dv, although once Decender I arrives she will just be able to make the 2,300+900 Mun and return journey. Medea also provides 16 days worth of lifesupport in a pair of US wedges, essential for keeping Kerbals alive when even a free-return Mun mission can take nearly 6 days (capsules carry 3 days per Kerbal)

A refueling mission will be sent up later to top up her tanks, as well as serving as very-much-needed docking practice ... as noone has ever rendezvous let alone docked anything in space yet.

Mission cost, 60,095 Funds, 2x723 Funds recovered from boosters.

Spoiler: An exercise for the reader

Spoiler

 

As a bit of an exercise I wanted to see the mass fraction of HoundDog II, taking this launch as an example we have a starting mass of 98,500kg, and a final to orbit mass of 6,300kg. Now I know I went to a 150Km orbit, when I could have got away with a 95 (or even 92) km orbit but I dont think that will make much difference,

The mass fraction works out at 6.4%

That seems low to me, can anyone give me some ideas on how that ranks vs other launchers, or even if it is a decent number at all?

 

 

 

Day 184, Mun

Spoiler

Lunic Ic enters Mun SOI, a tiny 20m/sec burn from the transfer stage encourages the trajectory to be above rather than below the surface of Mun, Mission control thought this was a small but important change to make.

A few hours later the proper 700Dv burn was performed at 25Km above the Mun, the transfer stage is released during this burn and continues on its elliptical orbit whilst Lunic completes to a 26x27km orbit alone.

Rather frustratingly the same glitch occours to Ic as did Ib, with the SAS unit resizing itself from 0.625m to 1.25m. No physical effects that I noticed but it just looks wrong with all the sciency bits now rendered inside the bloated SAS unit.

The lander begins its decent and successfully manages to land in the Midlands Crater biome, just north of the Twin Craters, this should serve as a great spot for a manned landing, as there are 3 or 4 biomes in close proximity. 393Dv remain aboard, but the motors are shut down and the probe is sent to sciencing.

61 science transmitted home, but like Ia and Ib the sample science is retained aboard for recovery.

Mission cost, 46,001 Funds, 2x 942 Funds recovered from boosters.

Its also quite a pretty spot, with Kerbol, Minmus hanging in the sky whilst Kerbin peeks over the horizon .... also I think the hot pink glow makes it 24x cooler.

Just to spoil a perfect trio of missions, the transfer stage failed to perform its de-orbit burn, the probe aligned correctly, and the retros did fire, however the thrust vector intercepted the decoupler ring resulting in no net thrust (actually it raised the Pe by 20km) so I have a new piece of space junk in a highly elliptical Mun orbit, it retains stored battery power (no generating capacity) and has sas and communications, just no Dv.

 

Day 185, Mun orbit

Spoiler

And finally for this episode, Verity V-Mu makes a second appearance, after 9 days orbiting Mun its polar orbit has now aligned sufficiently for an escape burn to be made. A 700Dv burn made from its 90km orbit lies Verity up perfectly for a 41Km Pe inside Kerbins atmosphere, Verity retains 210Dv however should that need to be adjusted at a later stage.

 

Day 187-188, Some backwater on the far side of Kerbin

Spoiler

 

It was midnight at KSC when Verity decided to make its final decent into Kerbins atmosphere, 500Km above the surface the service module is decoupled and allowed to fall away on a steeper trajectory to burn up.

This was the first time anything had been recovered (or attempted to be recovered) from above LKO, so it was going to serve as good preparation for the upcoming Kerballed flights (even though the heat shield for Decender I has already been made) Without the service module Verity still weighs in at 960kg, (50 kilos of that are heatshield), the 73,000km fall from Mun had resulted in a speed of 8,400 m/sec when the probe hit atmosphere 91Km up.

The 42Km Pe Verity had aimed for proved to be too steep an angle for any manned craft to endure, Verity however was built tougher than any Kerbal. Peaking at 1360 degrees the heatshield was not far off its max temperature, 33/50kg of ablator boiled off but the most crippling effect was the 12.3g force applied to the craft, any Kerbal trying this would have been liquified. KSC makes a note of this.

Falling slower now Verity's chute pops open at 6.5km, fully opening only 600m above the ocean it settles down safely awaiting recovery.

Over its 15 day mission Verity had managed to transmit home 279 science, whilst a further 180 was recovered from its onboard experiments.

Contract parameters complete, solar particle data from high Mun orbit, 7,159 Funds, 17 Science, 14 Reputation

Temperature scan from low Mun orbit, 9,095 Funds, 14 science, 18 reputation

Contracts complete, Mun Orbital Survey, 42,567 Funds, 74 Reputation.

Mission cost, 88,452 Funds, - 2x760 recovered boosters, - 13,562 recovered probe.

Total cost 73,370

 

 

Edited December 4, 2015 by Shania_L

[Shania_L]

After a very long night dragging the remains of Verity V-Mu from the Eastern ocean, the science team sat down to analyse the results whilst their socks dried on the engine test rig.

Science from the probe allows the long awaited Large Electrics node to be unlocked.

KCT upgrade point allocated to VAB build rate #3 (Now at 0.60)

Day 193, The outer reaches of the Kerbin system

Spoiler

 

Verity V-Mi breaks free of Kerbins gravity well, falling (sideways) around Kerbol itself the probe would be set for an eternity in interplanetary space however the (totally not clockwork) onboard countdown fires its main engine for a 476Dv burn across Kerbins bow. It also fires off each of the onboard experiments to sample the high Kerbol orbit data, some of this will be transmitted home once communications are restored, the rest of it will be recovered with the probe after re-entry.

MET 26D 3H 37M Verity will transfer back to Kerbin SOI and then fall for 33 days to a fiery re-entry, this is a proper test of the heatshield technology.

Verity V-Mi seen here at its maximum distance from Kerbin, around 400Mm, travelling at over 31Km/sec relative to Kerbol it spends a grand total of 3 hours 17 minutes as the only artificial object outside Kerbins SOI.

 

Day 195, KSC

Spoiler

 

The next piece of hardware in the quest to put a Kerbal on Mun has been assembled on the launchpad, this is arguably the most complex part as well as being the most important. It is Decender I, the two stage landing vehicle and living quarters for our intrepid explorer for the entire trip.

Launched un-manned (partially for safety, partially to save on lifesupport) Decender sits atop a HoundDog II ready for its midafternoon launch window to meet Medea as she passes overhead.

Scrambling for speed the core stage is jettisoned, we may have under estimated how long it would take to get up to speed and Medea has overtaken us. With the payload fairing already long gone, a first glimpse of the lander is possible, also note this launch is carrying a temporary 5 way docking adaptor rig for use during assembly.

Forced to orbit twice in a 155x92Km orbit Decender finally catches up to and equalises orbit with Medea, it was always intended to use the landers decent engine for final orbit insertion and minor manoeuvring however more fuel than intended has been burnt, no worries we will have to add it to the shopping list of stores that the re-supply ship will bring up next.

Medea has no RCS system aboard so she orients 'due north' and relies on Decender to work around her, this is complicated however by the RCS on Decender being positioned and balanced for use on return from Mun, I.e without any heavy landing stage full of fuel.

Spoiler:Shopping List

Spoiler

 

2,984 Kg Liquid Oxygen - Medea - (Minimum, allow at least 10Kg excess for boiloff)

1,738 Kg Kerosene - Medea

20 Kg Aerozine50 - Decender I

30 Kg NTO - Decender I (Main engine and RCS)

10 Kg UDMH - Decender I (RCS)

 

 

Mission cost, 69,445 Funds, 2x792 Funds recovered from boosters (The capsule and associated parts will also be recovered at a later date)

 

Day 196, Minmus

Helmdar IIb-Mi completes its basic altimetery scan of Minmus, 30 science transmitted home.

Contract completed - Science from Minmus orbit, 92,275 Funds, 2 Science, 208 Reputation.

Slightly later that day at the KSC

Spoiler

 

Having been built alongside Decender I (and being a considerably simpler(read faster to build) craft) Hector was rolled out to the launchpad atop its HoundDog II launcher only 1 day after the lander itself.

Hector was a work of simplicity itself, taking the minimal mission requirements, 5 tonnes of liquefied payload and wrapping the minimal amount of spacecraft around it. In order to maintain balance for the expected docking manoeuvre Hector split its payload in two, putting its own fuel supplies between the forward, cryogenic, and rear, non-cryogenic, tanks.

Todays launch window to meet Medea was not to be photogenic, it was infact very dark, so as there is no night vision mode available this is the first image available of the mission.

Having similar orbital mis-alignment trouble as Decender did earlier Hector had to take multiple orbits before finally getting to approach Medea.

Mission Cost 56,734 Funds, 2x792 Funds recovered from boosters.

 

Day 197, KSC

Spoiler

 

Some bright spark decided it might be a good idea to have a slightly better map of the Mun before we drop a Kerbal onto it. Current mission planners argued that as the Mun is all grey anyway having a black and white map was no issue, that was until the contract payout for Mun biome scan was presented .... shortly after that Helmdar IIc was designed and built.

Initially it was intended for Helmdar IIc to carry out RPWS scans of Mun (and Minmus) but soon after launch KSC was approached by a private foundation requesting a detailed long term RPWS/Magentometer assessment of Mun and Minmus so the sensor aboard Helmdar IIc was left dormant after sending 30 science data on Kerbins radio background in high and low orbit.

Contract complete, Science from Kerbin Orbit, 44,809 Funds, 1 Science, 107 Reputation.

Launched aboard a HoundDog Ib, Helmdar IIc is based on a long serving design able to attain Mun or Minmus orbit with a wide variety of payloads, the low mass of the Biome scanner even allows the fuel fraction of the probe to be lowered without significantly affecting total Dv.

Mission cost, 60,981 Funds, - 2x940 Funds recovered from boosters.

 

Day 199, Mun

Spoiler

 

Helmdar IIc arrives at Mun'r SOI and performs a 290Dv inclination burn to align itself for a polar orbit, this is less than half of the 590Dv remaining in the transfer stage and it goes a long way towards the 840Dv burn required to capture Helmdar into orbit. With the Ap dropped to the 234Km scanning altitude, Helmdar performs a small final burn to circularise half an orbit later.

Now that Helmdar IIc is in place, the older RADAR varient of Helmdar (IIb) can be retired, infact part of the contract for biome scanning includes payment for retirement of Helmdar IIb. Burning all of its remaining fuel IIb makes short work of its death spiral plunging at speed into the deep shadows of the Mun another long serving craft ends its days.

Contract parameter complete, 14,015 Funds, 5 Science, 6 Reputation.

 

 

---

Up next time, Day 200, sees the addition of a Kerbal to the Mun Ship.

Edited December 4, 2015 by Shania_L

[Shania_L]

Day 200, KSC

Spoiler

 

Pilot 1st rate Sigbert Kerman looked out of the small porthole for what felt like the 50th time, despite the fact that he could only see the inside of the protective fairing around his capsule. He had been sat here for the last 3 hours as the techs had delicately hammered the fairings closed around the fourth derivative of the Ascender capsule.

Sigbert Kerman, hero of the early Ascender 2 and 3 flights had been chosen for this historic mission partly for his familiarity with the Ascender capsule and its systems, but also for the fact that Elory Kerman, the only other first rate Pilot, had conveniently got himself blind drunk the night before and was rendered incapable of flying.

Taking lessons from the Descender and Hector launches over the previous days, Ascender IV was launched at dawn giving it a greater headstart as the Medea assembly area swung around the planet.

Ascender IV is lifted into a 160x150km orbit by its HoundDog Ib, this allows the slightly trailing Medea to catch up within a single orbit.

Ascender IV is again a similar craft to the Ascender III, it gains a junior docking port and more advanced deployable (but non-retractable) solar arrays, two of these are stored within a quad US wedge ring, the other two for this flight have been assigned to life support storage, allowing this craft to maintain a single Kerbal for 20 days.

Despite the predictable issue of the rendezvous occurring in pitch darkness Sigbert is able to cancel his relative velocity and maintain distance from Medea until sunrise allows much more photogenic images to be generated (also less fiery death, explosions and all those fun things).

By this time Hector had long since transferred its payload into Medea, it was just hanging about now to raise the part count and render Sigberts docking procedure to be that little bit harder.

 

Day 201, Kerbin Low Orbit

Spoiler

 

Seen here is the final assembly area, Medea transfer stage at the bottom, Decender I lander at the top, Hector disposable fuel tanker docked to the left and Ascender IV in the foreground about to dock opposite (ish, its a 3 symmetry docking port arrangement .. yeah yeah I know, silly)

Ascender transfers some final units of UDMH for the lander capsules RCS system and also Sigbert himself transfers across to make sure all systems are functional before the un-necessarily complex undocking manoeuvre. In this configuration although fairly stable it is still 20 tonnes spread over 134 parts all connected together on junior docking ports, the decision is made to separate the craft into their operational state as soon as possible.

Undocking Decender and Medea from the 5 way adaptor Sigbert waits a few seconds to allow them to drift in opposite directions simply from the force of decoupling before firing the RCS system on Ascender IV to pull it, the docking adaptor and the horribly off centre Hector out from the middle. With Hector being incredibly light despite its size the move works quite well, and once clear Medea and Decender redock nose to nose.

Ascender transfers any last dregs of fuel from Hector before Hector decouples and burns for a suicidal re-entry. Ascender is left with the docking adaptor in its 150km orbit ... for future use, it has some 1,200 Dv aboard as well as the best part of 18 days lifesupport.

But, thats not the bit you are interested in, Medea rotates horizontal and aligns for its ejection burn, at this point it is noticed that 80 parts weighing in at nearly 16,500Kg needs somewhat more reaction control systems than it was designed with, using the RemoteTech alignment functions results in feedback loops and spins fast enough to create artificial gravity. Another problem is that because both Medea and Decenders engines were fired to get them into orbit, my flight data mod is combining the Dv of transfer stage and lander to come out to a grand total of 7,000Dv .... I know however that it is more like 3,500-4,000 for the transfer stage.

But those are minor details, we are going to the Mun! a 2,300Dv burn is plotted and even with Medeas twin KeroLox motors pumping out 121KN of thrust the burn is going to take 5min 10 seconds to complete.

Just after this image was taken a blurr rushed through shot, it turns out that Ascender IV hadnt drifted in the direction I had anticipated and during Medeas burn I had passed within 600m of a collision.

Half of the mass of the vehicle was consumed during this burn, 16,500Kg down to 8,300 at engine shutdown. Estimated flight time of 1 day 5 hrs until Sigbert hits a 25Km Mun Pe. We will leave him to his thoughts and be back later.

 

Day 202, KSC

Spoiler

 

Whilst most people at the KSC were obsessing over Sigberts historic flight (and incredibly witty press reports) the Verity Probe Science Division had their own launch to focus on. The Verity VI-Mi probe was built specifically to order for a contract, someone with entirely too much time on their hands wanted a record of RPWS and magnetometer readings around Minmus .... for 340days, but they were willing to pay handsomely for it and that was all that mattered really, what with the next research building upgrade requiring over 5 million Funds.

Verity VI was launched atop a dependable HoundDog Ib, due to its small size no larger launcher was required. However a new technique would be trialled for this launch and will be applied for all future Minmus launches if it works well. Rather than launching equatorially and then performing an expensive plane change burn in low orbit (often over 500Dv for the 6 degree chance) it was decided to time the launch to coincide with Minmus' inclination and launch at 6 degrees. This did however result in a night launch

Attaining a 170Km 6 degree inclined orbit, with only an 87Dv burn required to fine tune the matchup is a pretty stunning improvement. Later in the orbit a 2,500Dv burn is made to inject Verity towards Minmus

Mission Cost, 43,498 Funds, 2x940 Funds recovered from boosters.

 

Day 203, Mun Orbit

Spoiler

 

Sigbert is reluctantly roused from his detailed study of the propegation of condensing water droplets across a spinning Kerbonaught helmet by the rapidly approaching large grey object outside his porthole ... also by the seemingly incessant shouting in his ear from someone claiming to be mission control, something about not caring about water droplets when there is high Mun orbit science to collect.

Medea burns nearly all its remaining fuel stocks in an 890Dv capture burn at Mun Pe resulting in a nice stable 25Km equatorial orbit.

Rather than disembarking immediately Sigbert decides he should start to be a little more professional and begins to record and transmit home science from low orbit above multiple biomes. All 4 SR sensors on the lander are capable of low orbit biome scans, these are collected on EVA and stored in the capsule, crew reports are transmitted home as they are observed.

Combined craft mass now down to 6,350Kg

 

Later that same day, Low Mun Orbit

Spoiler

 

After nearly 2 complete orbits Sigbert has collected all available data and KSC has given him the go ahead to detach Decender I and make for a landing as near to Lunic Ib as possible. Lunic Ib has been chosen over the original target of Ic due to Ic having just passed into the Mun'r night.

However there is a slight issue with using Lunic Ib as the primary landing site, The Helmdar IIc biome mapping satellite only arrived at Mun 4 days ago and in order to meet contract specifications was not in an ideal scanning orbit (since when do customers know best?) Lunic Ib had not yet fallen under its gaze, Sigbert would be landing into an un-charted zone.

 

 

With Decender I separated, Medea rotates to a polar orientation to facilitate easier docking once Sigbert returns. Medea now weighs in at only 960Kg (from its initial 11,000) and has around 1,000Dv on its own.

Decender I now separated, Sigbert activates the LV-909 landing engine and is relieved at the readouts on predicted performance, weighing in at a hefty 5,350Kg decender still manages 2,400Dv in the decent stage with nearly another 2,000 in the ascent stage.

Sigbert begins his decent burn already trying to think of some philosophical saying to quote as soon as he steps out upon the Mun. The lander has only 3 days life support the rest is stored in Medea, so he had best get a move on.

Yes I know the solar panels are not deployed, these, like the panels on Medea, Hector and Ascender IV are non-retractable. Decender I has a large battery capacity which was topped up from Medea before separation. (the landing stage is designed to retain functionality even after Sigbert leaves it behind) The panels will be deployed after landing when there is no chance of breaking them.

 

 

Edited December 4, 2015 by Shania_L

[Shania_L]

Day 203, Flying/Falling at Very Low Mun Altitude

Spoiler

 

It was times like these that Sigbert really wished he was somewhere else ... anywhere really other than in a small tin can falling at high speed across a barren and alien surface. He had already had to tape his mission profile checklist across the small window to stop himself from screaming as each mountain range loomed large attempting to swat him from the sky before falling behind and beneath the small craft.

Fortunately for Sigbert the craft had been designed with an inept and terrified pilot in mind, there was infact only two buttons present in the cockpit, the big blue "go to land" button, and the big red "Get me out of here" button. With Sigbert mashing the red button as hard as he could flight planners were once again proved correct in their assumption and thanked the psychologists for insisting the buttons were wired in reverse.

At 5 hours and 10 minutes into day 203, Descender I safely touched down upon the surface of Mun, on the northern edge of the East Crater to be precise.

Shutting down the motor and disabling all active systems, Sigbert carefully clambered out of the capsule and onto the surface to show just how much of his training he had managed to remember. It seems the many tens of thousands of Funds worth of training has not gone to waste, Sigbert has performed his duty perfectly and managed not to get the flag stuck in his eye. Well done Sigbert!

Contract Completed, Plant Flag on Mun 120,172 Funds, 469 Reputation.

Briefly returning to the capsule Sigbert activates all of the onboard science instruments, once again anything capable of being transmitted for 100% value is transmitted, everything else is stored. Sigbert also deploys the solar panels to allow him to heat up a snax bar, without accidentally killing all electrical systems.

The automated targeting computer had outdone itself and managed to put the craft down barely 60m from the Lunic Ib probe lander so Sigberts next task was to try and walk across the surface and locate the large brightly illuminated Lunic Ib probe lander. To aid in this endeavour the targeting computer had aligned the capsules hatch in the correct direction as it had landed.

Sigbert thinks he may have been able to locate the Lunic Probe, however he feels the need to check his probe identification list to make sure;

item 1, is it the ship you landed in? .. No, 2, is it a natural object? .. No, 3. is it your own shadow? .. No, then it is probably Lunic. Feeling proud of his deductive skills Sigbert proceeds to extract the science data previously collected by the probe and returns it to his capsule.

Having collected all science possible for the current location, and having 694Dv remaining in the decent stage, Sigbert performs a short hop 40Km north, re-landing in the Highlands biome. This was quite a risky task, he manages to land this time with only 40Dv in the tank, certainly not going anywhere else now!

Repeating all of his scientific tasks Sigbert takes a quick look around his location quickly identifying a large crater just to the north east of his location, perhaps another 10km away. Mission control authorise him to attempt an overland EVA trip to see if there is any different readings to be had from there.

After burning through half of his EVA fuel and then dragging his heels the rest of the way Sigbert finally reaches the lip of the crater .... to find it is comprised of exactly the same type of dirt and rocks that are currently littered around his spacecraft. A little miffed at his wasted time and effort Sigbert returns to his capsule for another Snax bar.

 

Day 204, Surface of the Mun

Spoiler

 

After spending the night cooped up in the control cabin Sigbert decides he has had enough of the Mun, the next time Medea is scheduled to pass overhead Sigbert activates the ascent stage, 3 twin radial nozzles blast the hypergolic fuel mixture out launching Sigberts capsule up and away into the night.

An orbit and a half is required to get a matching orbit with Medea, the 40Km hop had misaligned the orbits somewhat. With the two craft re-docked Sigbert reassesses Medeas Dv budget and becomes quite alarmed by what he sees. Medeas Kerolox engines have approximately 550Dv remaining, this is even taking into account the release of the Mun ascent stage (which hasnt been jettisoned yet thankfully!!) an escape burn from Mun to aerocapture at Kerbin takes 700Dv. The only way to achieve this now is to use the ascent stage for the initial phase of burn, dump it when it runs dry, flip the craft 180 degrees around then light up Medeas motors to finish the burn .... even then we will be running on vapours.

This is a most baffling situation, the initial mission plan had estimated there to be sufficient Dv not only for Medea to escape Mun unassisted, but also to capture itself into Kerbin orbit whilst the capsule re-enters. Someone needs to go back and do the maths again (probably me).

After completing the rather complicated burn Medea cruises away from Mun with a grand total of 3m/sec of Dv in its tanks this will be enough for little more than a slight tweak of the re-entry altitude when we are closer to home, currently we had a Kerbin Pe of 48Km in 2D 5H.

 

Day 205, KSC

Spoiler

 

After all the fuss and media frenzy surrounding Sigberts historic "Not dying in a fireball" event, it was left to the Verity division to get back to more regular missions. A sister ship of the Verity VI class had been constructed and loaded aboard a Hound Dog Ib, this one is intended to study the RPWS and magnometric readings around the Mun ... for the next 180 days.

7 minutes into the flight, 8,500Dv had been converted from having the probe stationary on the launchpad to orbiting Kerbin at 157Km altitude. A further 24 minutes after that 2,270Dv is burned to inject the craft and transfer stage onto a course to intercept the Mun.

Craft cost 43,498 Funds, 2x 940 Funds recovered from boosters.

 

Day 207, KSC

Spoiler

 

Not content to let the Verity division do all the distracting, the Helmdar mapping division also managed to get their latest mission to finish construction during Sigberts long fall back to Kerbin.

Helmdar IIc-Mi is another sister vessel, this one is a direct copy of the craft currently scanning Muns biomes, however this one is going to Minmus. Due to the successful nature of the previous probes inclined launch angle for Minmus transfers it is decided to launch IIc-Mi at a 6 degree inclination as soon as Kerbin rotates to the point where the KSC aligns with Minmus' orbit.

Getting slightly over excited IIc manages to end up in a 6 degree inclination 190Km orbit, 23 minutes after liftoff a 175Dv burn is made to finetune the alignment of orbits. The ejection burn however will have to be delayed, partially because someone very inconsiderate has parked a large grey planetoid right in the path of getting to Minmus ...... also there is something happening later today about a little green man falling from the sky?

 

Meanwhile .. in High Kerbin Orbit

Spoiler

 

Falling rapidly now towards Kerbin Sigbert cannot wait to get on the ground again .... when he all of a sudden remembers that he will have to re-enter Kerbins atmosphere he decides that "You know what? Mun wasnt so bad, infact I think I left something important there and I should really go back ... right now!!"

Passing 500Km Medea and Sigberts capsule separate for one final time, Sigbert aiming for his 48Km Pe whilst Medea burns its remaining 3Dv to drop to a 45Km Pe. The intention had been to save Medea in orbit and possibly re-use it for successive missions, however recovery will be quite a difficult task, but also with the fuel issues there are some design changes that KSC would like to incorporate into later marks.

Sigberts capsule enters Kerbins atmosphere pretty much over the KSC location, despite similar flight profile the capsule endures a gentler experience than the Verity V Mun return vesel. Peaking at 1450 degrees, 6.3G Sigbert screams (literally) across the sky at Mach 27.

After burning off 39 of the 80Kg of ablator conditions improve, the capsule decends and de-celerates to much saner speeds. The twin chutes pop open at 5km before fully opening at around 600m depositing a relieved, and quite hoarse, Sigbert Kerman onto dry land. Safely.

All in all, although the Mun mission turned out to be successful in achieving its goal, it was hardly efficient or particularly robust. There are already plans afoot for an improved version to make good on these failings and to ensure Kerbals maintain a presence in the local system.

Mission results.

Craft costs;

Decender I --- 69,445 Funds - 2x 792 recovered boosters

Medea ------- 60,095 Funds - 2x 723 recovered boosters

Ascender IV -- 39,147 Funds - 2x 940 + 1,101 recovered boosters and capsule

Hector ------- 56,734 Funds - 2x 792 recovered boosters

Total cost - 217,826 Funds

Total income, 1 contract completion, Flag on Mun 120,172 funds

Science income, 1,002 science recovered from capsule, 466 transmitted home

Sigbert gains 5xp.

 

 

Edited December 4, 2015 by Shania_L
Sigberts Pe @ Kerbin is 48 not 28km

[CatastrophicFailure]

Day 178, Minmus Escape trajectory

As a bit of an exercise I wanted to see the mass fraction of HoundDog II, taking this launch as an example we have a starting mass of 98,500kg, and a final to orbit mass of 6,300kg. Now I know I went to a 150Km orbit, when I could have got away with a 95 (or even 92) km orbit but I dont think that will make much difference,

The mass fraction works out at 6.4%

That seems low to me, can anyone give me some ideas on how that ranks vs other launchers, or even if it is a decent number at all?

6.4% is pretty darn good. IRL around 3% is pretty typical. Saturn V was like 4%. My most used launcher in 6.4x was about 5, so you're ahead of the curve there.

Also, 12 G's is very survivable... For short periods.

[Shania_L]

CatastrophicFailure said:

6.4% is pretty darn good. IRL around 3% is pretty typical. Saturn V was like 4%. My most used launcher in 6.4x was about 5, so you're ahead of the curve there.

Also, 12 G's is very survivable... For short periods.

Ohh, well thats heartening to know I had been looking at the more 'stockish' figures of around 18-20%. *Proudface*

Also, while I'm ooc, I have been getting very close to a 1.0.4 setup that I like, although I am still unsure if I am favouring a restart (but re-using mission concepts and designs) or trying to shoehorn my 0.90 persistence file into a 1.0.4 game.

In attempts at option 2 I got pretty close, all the crafts loaded, but I couldnt select them in the tracking station .. so I dunno what happened there.

 

---

Day 208, KSC

With Sigbert still consigned to sickbay following his Mun trip, nothing to do with the trip itself rather the homecoming party, the techs were overwhelmed with all the science they could now do. Even so, despite attempts to do 'all the science' they were still going to have to choose two of the 300 point nodes to not research. Then ofcourse someone was going to have to brave Wernhers office and request funding for the final research building upgrade .... noone was looking forward to that.

Technodes unlocked,

Actuators for 160 science

UnManned Tech, Field Science, Advanced Aerodynamics, High Altitude Flight and Large Control for 300 science each

The resulting 6 KCT upgrade points were spent on the VAB build queues, #1+2 @ 1.4, with #3 @ 0.75

This progress leaves only 3 '300 point' nodes remaining, one of which is already earmarked for research once actuators is complete. The problem then facing the KSC is the 6,360,000 Fund price tag on the final research building upgrade.

Whilst Mortimer (Finance Division) scratches his head over how to recoup that with coupons, we will return to some actual missions.

Day 208(still), Mun

Verity VI-Mu performs a 127Dv burn upon crossing the SOI boundary into Mun in order to increase its inclination to 33 deg as requested by the contract as well as to move its Pe to a more appropriate 26Km.

Whilst falling towards Mun, Verity operates its experiments in both high and low orbit completing contract parameters in the process;

Magnometric scan from High Orbit, 22,057 Funds, 50 Science, 42 Reputation

RPWS scan from High Orbit , 24,510 Funds, 50 Science, 38 Reputation (+30 science from actual scan)

Magnometric scan from Low Orbit 23,823 Funds, 62 Science, 32 Reputation

RPWS scan from Low Orbit, 22,494 Funds, 62 Science, 3 Reputation (+24 Science from actual scan)

Requiring a highly elliptical orbit to enable long term scanning at a range of altitudes, Verity only needs a burn of 273Dv at Pe to capture into a 26x8,000km orbit. Verity needs to follow this orbit for the next 180 days to earn the final contract payout.

At this point mission controllers realise they have completed the probes mission objectives without actually needing to drop the transfer stage .... it seems someone forgot to carry the 3 whilst calculating the DV budget.

Mission cost, 43,498 funds, 940x2 recovered from boosters.

Contract payments received, 92,884 Funds, 85,204 to follow.

Day 208(yes again), LKO

Helmdar IIc-Mi had been orbiting patiently waiting for Mun to get out of its way for a Minmus insertion burn, this afternoon it got its chance.

2,500m/sec ejection burn performed, to intercept Minmus in 7D 5H with an initial estimate of a 50Km Pe 2H after SOI change.

Helmdars transfer stage was retained but it unlikely to be much use during the capture burn having only 278Dv aboard, it will be guided into a Minmus collision path once we are nearer.

Day 210(Finally!!), KSC

The actuators tech node finishes unlocking, allowing another 300 science to be spent on the Composites node.

KCT upgrade spent on VAB build queue #3 (rate now 0.9)

Day 210, Minmus

Spoiler

 

Verity VI-Mi crosses into Minmus' SOI after its 8 day journey burning 50 Dv to tilt its inclination much like its sister craft did at Mun 2 days ago. During this burn the transfer stage is ejected to collide with Minmus, it still has 800Dv aboard, but with the capture burn requiring 1,100Dv this is the only way to ensure it does not become space junk, Verity itself carries enough Dv to perform the burn alone.

Falling towards Minmus Verity records science data as requested by the contract fulfilling parameters as it goes;

Magnetometer scan in High Orbit, 29,509 Funds, 47 Science, 44 Reputation.

RPWS scan in High Orbit, 32,021 Funds, 47 Science, 41 Reputation (+18 science from scan)

Magnetometer scan in Low Orbit, 23,901 Funds, 62 Science, 41 Reputation.

RPWS scan in Low Orbit, 28,396 Funds, 62 Science, 47 Reputation (+24 science from scan)

Verity VI performs its 1,153m/sec burn on the dark side of Minmus with Mun and Kerbin hanging illuminated in the background.

Final orbit achieved 21x935km @ 44.6 deg inclination. With 560Dv remaining in its tanks, Verity settles in for the long haul 340 day observation mission.

Mission cost, 43,498 Funds - 2x940 Funds recovered from boosters

Contract payments received, 113,827 Funds, 179,243 Funds to follow.

 

Day 211, KSC

Spoiler

 

Time for the Lunic Planetary Lander Division to shake things up a bit with a new craft, Lunic IIa!

Not satisfied with the puny landers they had sent to Mun, the Lunic Division this time have decided to send a monster to Minmus.

94 tonnes on the pad, Lunic IIa is a 4 stage, one way science lander designed to hit multiple biomes and store or transmit the results for future manned missions. Seen here at 1st stage burnout jettisoning fairings.

Fortunately this time around the Minmus inclination burn occurs during daylight hours allowing decent pictures to be taken, achieving a 150km circular orbit at 6deg inclination the final part of the burn is performed with Lunics transfer stage.

A minor 63Dv burn is required to fine tune the alignment with Minmus, before the 2,500m/sec ejection burn throws Lunic on its way, unfortunately that does occur in darkness.

Sacrifices had to be made in order to achieve sufficient Dv aboard the lander, one of the corners to be cut was insulation on the transfer stage, so the 546Dv remaining once the KeroLox fuelled Galaxy VR-2 engine shut down may not still be available 8 days later when the time comes for the Minmus capture burn.

 

 

---

Work is progressing well on a sister craft for Lunic IIa (Lunic IIb) but there is also progress and developments being made for a followup manned mission with increased capabilities, whether it is sent back to Mun, or even to Minmus is still undecided!

Edited December 4, 2015 by Shania_L

[Shania_L]

Nop, I'm not dead, I'm still here, you dont get away that easily!!

For today I have only a single launch, but it is time for the second quarterly roundup of the state of on going missions and career progress.

 

---

Day 213, KSC

Spoiler

 

Having been in parallel production with its sister craft, Lunic IIb was only delayed in its launch by 2 days due to launchpad reconfiguration and a minor adjustment to the crafts launch bracing (i.e adding some). The previous Lunic IIa launch had gone fairly well until later in the flight when the payload oscillated a little too much under thrust from the 2nd stage ascent motor, to remedy this a pair of bracing struts were added not only across this boundary, but also between the transfer stage and the lander itself.

Launched at midmorning in order to align with Minmus' orbit passing overhead most of the KSC staff missed it due to being busy hiding stuff they really shouldnt have before the audit later today.

Following a slightly steeper ascent profile than Lunic IIa it is found that disabling the solid motor gimbals and only activating the skippers gimbal until 20+km altitude prevents the majority of early flight control induced oscillation. Aggressively lowering the ascent angle once the thicker atmosphere had been cleared resulted in a 150km Ap still being possible, in addition Jeb was very impressed when he saw the flight profile and made positive comments on powersliding a 60+ tonne launch vehicle at supersonic speeds.

Once orbit is achieved, a 2,500Dv burn is initiated to transfer Lunic IIb towards Minmus, arriving in 8 days time.

Mission cost, 77,501 Funds - 2x823 Funds recovered from boosters

 

 

---

Day 213, KSC

2nd quarter roundup.

Career Progression

Spoiler

 

952,044Funds, 271.1 Science, 622 Reputation

VAB, Launchpad, Administration block, Mission Control, Astronaut Complex and Science Facility all have a single upgrade, Runway and SPH have none, Tracking station has two.

Research progress limited to '300' nodes, 2 remain to be unlocked, 1 currently unlocking.

 

Production Facilities

Spoiler

 

KSC, 3x VAB lines, 2@ rate 1.4, 1@ rate 0.9

KSC, 1xSPH line, unmodified @ rate 0.1

Current production is restricted to the upgraded craft required for the next manned Mun landing, the pad is still re-conditioning from the Lunic IIb launch.

 

Current Craft, arranged by SOI

Kerbin, Orbit

Spoiler

 

Ascender IV, 1 off, Remains un-manned in low orbit for no good reason really.

Centus II, 3 off, Providing round-Kerbin communications relay.

Centus III, 2 off, Providing the Kerbin end of Mun/Minmus communications links.

Helmdar III, 1 off, Polar orbit biome/resource surface scanning.

Plus 7 'debris class' objects, 3 de-commissioned craft and 4 spent boosters.

 

Kerbin, SOI transfer orbits

Spoiler

 

Helmdar II-Mi, In transfer to Minmus

Lunic II, 2 off, In transfer to Minmus

Verity V-Mi, Still falling back towards Kerbin after its solar science excursion.

 

Mun, Orbit

Spoiler

 

Centus IV, 3 off, Providing Mun-Kerbin and round-Mun communications relay.

Decender I, Decent stage of Manned Mun landing, remains active.

Helmdar IIc, Polar orbit biome scanning.

Lunic I, 3 off, Probe landers.

Verity VI, Long duration Mag/RPWS monitoring in eccentric orbit.

Plus 2 'debris class' objects, both spent boosters.

 

Minmus, Orbit

Spoiler

 

Centus IV, 3 off, Providing Minmus-Kerbin and round-Minmus communications relay.

Helmdar IIb, Polar orbit biome scanning.

Verity VI, Long duration Mag/RPWS monitoring in eccentric orbit.

 

Progress from Iakhod has stagnated, currently awaiting developments in aircraft technology that will allow winged craft to attempt high altitude or even sub-orbital flight. (read; planes are hard, space planes are harder)

There are building desires within the KSC for a permanent space facility to house Kerbals for extended periods, as well as the ability to launch multi-crew vehicles to enable specialised Kerbals to have access to space rather than just pilots. These goals will require another step improvement, and enlargement, of the current launcher family. HoundDog II's payload of 5-6 tonnes to LKO is simply insufficient for orbital construction, the council decrees that a new launcher, the HoundDog III, should be designed to handle a payload of no less than 10 tonnes to LKO.

In addition the first interplanetry probes should be designed to perform basic observation of our nearest neighbours, Duna and Eve.

With longer duration missions such as these there should be faster progression through the timeline due to the larger gaps between launches.

All in all, a successful first half-year, here's to many more like it, onwards and upwards!

Edited December 4, 2015 by Shania_L

[CatastrophicFailure]

Your level of detail, as always, is staggering. What did you ever settle on for thermal settings? I did my first high-orbit reentry recently and it wasn't nearly as toasty as it should have been, I need a reference lol.

[Shania_L]

I'm afraid I cant give you much reference, this career game is still running on 0.90. The settings it uses are DeadlyReentry hard mode, but with the x64 mods tweaks to increase heat diffusion and toughen up heatshields.

My test 1.0.4 install I run with stock heating at 100% and RealHeat to dampen it down, again with Nathans tweaks (aimed at RSS) to tone down the orbital speed differences. However I really dont have much experience of running missions on it, I have been simply trying to get my ships to transfer in as of yet

I'll see if I can run some missions on this simulated with KCT, see just what you are up against.

I reference to upgrading to 1.0.4, I think due to significant changes to the tech tree I am probably going to wait until I max it out in 0.90 then re-create the ships in a "new" career game with enough science to max the 1.0.4 tree artificially. This will allow me to still collect science and have a financially restricted game with contracts etc, probably my best bet short of a total re-start.

[Shania_L]

Ok, after some basic testing on 1.0.4 I will agree with you, the volume of ablative consumed during re-entry is noticeably reduced when compared to 0.90.

I am running stock heating at 100%, with RealHeat (no DRE), 64k contains a CFG which modifies the physics values for thermal.

My test involved a stock Mk1 capsule with stock heatshield simulated by KCT being dropped towards Kerbin from Mun orbit. I found 40km Pe was the highest altitude you could get away with and still capture to landing on a single pass, this resulted in an 8,400m/sec (orbital) initial atmosphere speed.

What I found though, and I believe I saw it referred to in the RealHeat thread, was that the less ablator you have onboard then the faster it burns away, more ablator is more effective at dispelling heat with its greater thermal mass. I ran tests with the 1.25m heatshield with 300 ablator, and tweaked down to 100.

The run using 300 burned up 25 units, the run with 100 burned up nearly 60.

This puts you in a bit of a compromise situation, you can save craft mass by starting with less ablator and accepting that more of it will burn, or put more on to start with and have more of it remaining afterwards. When you consider that these heatshields wont just be used for in-Kerbin trajectories I think that having all that ablator and excess capacity is going to be quite useful when you want to perform aerocapture at say Jool, and then re-enter on Laythe, or Sarnus/Tekto.

Even in my 0.90 version I usually tweak down the ablator volume to save craft mass, so as far as these (fairly simple) tests are concerned I would say the ablator volume burned is similar although slightly reduced than 0.90, not enough for me to want to change its effects though as unprotected parts of the craft were incinerated pretty quickly (Mun->Kerbin boost stage, jettisonned before re-entry but remained within physics range)

[Shania_L]

Day 215, KSC

Spoiler

 

Once the engineers had been able to tidy away all the reports especially written for yesterdays audit they were able to get back to doing some actual work, rockets and stuff you know?

At the crack of dawn a HoundDog II blasts off the pad, weighed down with the modified, but as-of-yet not renamed, Medea automated transfer stage. Straight up into a circular 160km equatorial parking orbit

Carrying the same fuel load as the initial variant, but as you can see the junior docking port has been replaced by the sturdier regular sized port. In addition it has gained a bank of fixed OX-Stat solar panels. Medea parks in orbit having used a lower propertion of its internal stocks than the last flight, this will allow a lighter payload for the Hector re-fuelling vessel.

Mission cost 60,793 Funds - 2x793 recovered from boosters.

Due to the large number of long term contracts currently in progress, permission has been granted to upgrade Mission Control to its final level allowing unlimited concurrent contracts. This is despite the penny pinching KSC is enduring to save up for the R&D lab upgrade, the argument being that having more contracts allows more funds to be earned thus justifying the 400,000 Fund expenditure.

 

Day 216, Minmus

Spoiler

 

Helmdar IIc-Mi arrives in Minmus SOI after its 8 day transfer, with communications restored via the Minmus-net satellites Helmdar is commanded to perform a simple 40Dv burn increasing its inclination to 77deg and its Pe to only 14km. Despite there being 184Dv remaining in the transfer stage at this point it is jettisoned and allowed to make its own arrangements for impact with Minmus.

1 hour later Helmdar performs a 1,125Dv burn at Pe to capture into a slightly eccentric 15x250km orbit at 77deg. Positive confirmation of transfer stage impact upon the surface.

Meanwhile, the previous scanning probe, Helmdar IIb-Mi has long since finished its Lo-res RADAR scan of the surface, it performs a tiny 25Dv burn to increase its inclination to 88deg for a final pass over both poles prior to its own retirement.

 

Day 217, Minmus

Helmdar IIc-Mi performs its final 30Dv circularisation burn to settle in at 251km for its long haul biome scanning mission.

Day 217, KSC

Spoiler

 

Elory Kerman has been returned to active duty following his shameful behaviour in getting himself off the Mun mission, in penance he has been assigned a simple maintenance job on the recently launched Medea probe.

Lifting off later than anticipated the sun has already risen significantly giving Medea quite a headstart, but also giving us better looking pictures, so i'd call that 50/50.

As you can see the Ascender IV craft is carrying into orbit a reworked docking adaptor, now packing a pair of regular and a pair of junior docking ports. Medea and Decender are upgraded to standard, whereas Ascender and Hector will retain the junior ports.

However the main reason for this flight is a minor glitch or design failure with the upgraded Medea craft, when the junior port was removed, err somebody forgot to replace the reaction control system. As such Medea has no method of controlling its own orientation without firing its engines, the radial control unit contains none and would be far too puny to get Medeas 11,000kg bulk moving anyway.

Elory will have to attach a set of RCS thrusters around the docking ring and replace one of the KeroLox Universal Storage wedges with a UDMH/NTO wedge.

Technically the RCS units are being attached to movable doors, but all 4 of these wedges are tanks so the doors wont open anyway (unless there is some kind of explosion, but lets not tempt the Kraken here now huh?)

Elory seen here has removed the KeroLox wedge and allows it to float free in the upper left, whilst he relocates the UDMH/NTO wedge from Ascender to Medea, the KeroLox wedge will then be replaced on Ascender for return to Kerbin (in firey death)

After successfully attaching the units Elory undocks Ascender leaving the adaptor behind, performs a quick systems test confirming that Medea has control of the new units and then burns retrograde to re-enter Kerbins atmosphere.

Ditching his service module just before hitting the hot stuff Elory confirms its destruction, before making his own landing in the desert west of KSC.

17.8 science gained from desert biome.

Mission cost 39,500 Funds, 2x940 recovered from boosters.

 

Day 219, Minmus

Spoiler

 

Everything seems to be happening at Minmus this week. Lunic IIa arrives at Minmus SOI.

It would seem that the excess Liquid Oxygen stored in the non-insulated transfer stage has more than compensated for the volume boiled off during its 8 day transfer, to the tune that it has actually gained 1Dv from weight loss!!

Allowing Lunic to fall towards Minmus with the transfer stage still attached the remaining 547Dv is burned retrograde as it passes 1Mm altitude, this burn is also used to drop the Pe to just below the surface. With the transfer stage now entirely drained it is jettisoned on an impact trajectory and Lunic uses its own motors to re-raise the Pe to 15km.

This high and early burn is not particularly efficient, speed will be re-gained on the rest of the fall, but it will significantly reduce the approach speed and thus amount of Dv required at the capture burn whilst still providing a course that lets the transfer stage impact the surface.

Lunic performs its capture burn of 662 m/sec in the shadow of Minmus, with only 9.4KN of thrust on its triple AIES EX-1 SAT motors this burn will take the best part of 3 minutes.

Lunic IIa seen here during its capture burn.

With just over half of its MMH/NTO fuel stocks remaining Lunic is in a stable 12x19Km orbit at a low 12.5deg inclination.

742Dv remain, Lunic weighs in at 1,787kg but with Minmus' low orbital velocity of only 211m/sec this will be more than sufficient to perform the intended double biome hits.

Less than half an orbit after capture it is decided to put Lunic down on one of the approaching flat areas, despite Minmus having no atmosphere at all it would seem that the planetoid does infact have localised clouds of vapour around its surface making for an interesting backdrop for Lunic to descend through.

Putting down safely on the edge of the Greater flats a quick systems check reveals 485Dv remain. Minor problems are encountered with landing gear springyness causing multiple bounces but we settle eventually and are able to perform Mat bay, Goo, Magnetometer readings, temperature/pressure readings all 4 SR sensors and a probe core reading. Any science capable of being broadcast home at 100% is broadcast, all the rest is retained aboard.

Contract parameters complete, Land on Minmus. 39,516 Funds, 56 Reputation.

...................... Transmit Science from Minmus, 26,321 Funds, 29 Reputation

Contract "Explore Minmus" complete, 237,251 Funds, 300 Reputation.

To celebrate the achievement, Lunic being such a hip and modern kind of probe, takes a selfie.

Using 110Dv, Lunic makes a short hop off of the Flats and re-lands in the slope biome, repeating all the science broadcasting/storing process.

Despite only carrying 2 of each of the sample type experiments, Lunic still has 375Dv in its tanks, it is decided to make a second jump using 125Dv to put down in the Midlands biome and only perform the repeatable transmission experiments.

289 science broadcast back to KSC

Finally with only 250Dv remaining, Lunic ends its mission by .... putting itself into a 20km orbit!! This will allow much easier collection of the stored science by a later recovery mission. Or perhaps with its last 17Dv it will fly to Gilly? who knows!!

Mission cost 77,501 Funds - 2x823 recovered from boosters.

 

 

Edited December 4, 2015 by Shania_L

[Shania_L]

Day 220, Minmus

Helmdar IIb has been retired after 71 days continuous operation Lo-Res RADAR altimetry scanning the surface of Minmus.

With IIc now in place performing its biome scan, the IIb is obsolete, it burns the remains of its fuel and performs a perfect impact into the Polar regions leaving no debris.

Contract parameter complete, Retire RADAR scanner, 14,015 Funds, 5 Science, 6 Reputation.

Day 220, KSC

Science from the Lunic IIa Minmus lander has been processed and the final 2x '300' nodes are unlocked. Ion propulsion and Nuclear propulsion.

2 KCT points spent upgrading VAB build queue #3 (Now 1.2)

All science progress is now on hold until the R&D lab can be upgraded.

Meanwhile

Spoiler

 

After numerous calculations and simulations, the VAB techs had decided on a design for the next generation launcher, the naming ceremony progressed with the inevitable forgone conclusion and the HoundDog III project submitted build plans to Mortimer (Finance) for funding.

Rather surprisingly they were turned down, apparently spending 85,000 Funds to live fire a test rocket didnt fit well with the agencies current "Save a Fund; build a Munship" attitude.

Even the Science division, who were normally great at finding ways to learn about the universe through apparently unrelated events, were stumped to find a reason to fire 8 tonnes of lead plating into low orbit. Even the prospect of it catching fire and impacting the ground at high velocity (although it would be impressive) didnt sound 'sciency' enough.

HoundDog III artists concept submitted to Finance for appraisal, rejected unless profit can be made.

 

 

Day 221, Minmus

Spoiler

 

Lunic IIb enters Minmus SOI falling slightly faster and with a little lower Dv than its earlier sister, it performs the same series of manoeuvres.

Burning all the remaining 542Dv in the transfer stage at an altitude of 1Mm it is jettisoned on an impact trajectory and Lunic aims for its own 20Km Pe.

A darkside capture burn of 705Dv uses just over half of Lunics onboard fuel supply leaving the probe in a 27x18Km 9degree inclined orbit.

After Minmus sunrise, Lunic IIb puts down in the Midlands region to finish the science IIa had missed, it then performs a short hop to the Lowlands biome and performs a full science sweep, Low Dv prevented any attempt at a 3rd biome assuming a return to orbit was still desired, it was.

Lunic IIb is parked in low orbit with its haul of surface samples awaiting collection.

184 science transmitted home.

Mission cost 77,501 Funds - 2x823 recovered from boosters.

 

Day 224, LKO

Helmdar III completes its scan of surface Karbonite, transmitting it home results in contract completion.

Science from Kerbin orbit, 46,148 Funds, 1 Science, 115 Reputation.

Also, Multispectral scan of Mun/Minmus contract completion, 141,900 Funds, 58 Science, 60 reputation.

Day 226, High Kerbin Orbit

Spoiler

 

Verity V-MI, had you forgotton about it? dont worry, most people at the KSC had as well.

The little probe that could, still holds the record for altitude and speed was now heading for a new entry in the logs, fastest Mun-Kerbin transit. Falling through Muns 72.9Mm orbit at a little over 1,750m/sec Verity will hit Kerbin atmo barely 8 hours later, a poll is opened in the crewroom estimating velocity at Pe, all Kerbals involved in mission planning were subsequently disqualified after some bids were found quoted to within 3 decimals.

 

 

Day 227, Kerbin

Spoiler

 

Falling through 10Mm, Verity re-establishes contact with Kerb-net satellites, in a surprisingly well thought out plan, Verities haul of transmittable data from High Kerbol orbit is transmitted home just incase of any re-entry related firey-explody-shinanigans. Recorded by the automated computer, the data had been trapped in Verities memory ever since due to the probe remaining out of communications range for broadcast until just now. Also a last minute orbit update is performed, adjusting the Pe to 52km.

After 59 and a half days in space, Verity V-Mi ditches its support stage 500km above Kebins surface and aligns for re-entry.

Orbital velocity at atmosphere intersect, 8,540 m/sec, (Mach 28.7) at this velocity there is a noticeable force even up at 91km, unlike LKO re-entries which can be uneventful for the first 10 or so km, even so it takes a bit for the air to thicken up and start putting some real load on ... which it does.

Peak loading occurred at around 47km altitude, the heatshield got up to 1360 degrees even whilst ablative was burning off (it explodes at 1500) whilst pulling 9.7Gs, I am quite surprised there werent any structural failures due to that.

By 42km all of the values had peaked and were dropping back towards 'safe' .... except ofcourse ablative levels which were still reducing.

14.7kg of the 50kg ablative remains.

Due to my estimation of time being wildly off, the crafts antenna didnt re-extend until around 8 minutes after it had splashed down, so the heatshield was not jettisoned, 921kg recovered from booster bay.

202 Science collected from onboard instruments, 13,130 Funds recovered from craft parts.

Contract parameters complete, Solar partical collection from Low Minmus; 12,608 Funds, 34 Science, 26 Reputation.

Contract parameters complete, Mystery Goo Observation from Low Minmus orbit; 11,932 Funds, 36 Science, 24 Reputation.

Contract complete, Minmus Orbital Survey; 54,553 Funds, 93 Reputation.

 

Meanwhile at the KSC

You didnt just think I was going to abandon it did you? its far too pretty for that.

Kerbals are creative masterminds when it comes to thinking up an excuse for lighting the touchpaper beneath 136tonnes of rocket.

Until next time

Edited December 4, 2015 by Shania_L

[CatastrophicFailure]

Hmm, 8 tonnes now. Do you have a timeline of capacity increases over the development of the Hounddog line?

[Shania_L]

Hmm, 8 tonnes now. Do you have a timeline of capacity increases over the development of the Hounddog line?

A plan? as in thinking up what I am going to do before I actually do it? Surely that violates the laws of causality or somesuch?

I have a vague idea of where I am going, but nothing as concrete as tying launch mass to a timeline, I just know that for the next phase of missions, 3 tonnes just wont cut it.

The 8 tonne test weight was intended as an easy boilerplate mission, HoundDog III is actually rated for a 10 tonne deadweight payload. I have however, already simulated a Medea launch (14 tonnes) which is required to complete its own circularisation. (Because when you give a Kerbal a 10 tonne lifter ofcourse the first thing he does is put 14 tonnes on it)

[CatastrophicFailure]

I was thinking more of like a concise history. Performance & capacity of the original HoundDog vs the later variants, & such.

[Shania_L]

CatastrophicFailure said:

I was thinking more of like a concise history. Performance & capacity of the original HoundDog vs the later variants, & such.

Ahh right, well in that case I think its about time I did a launcher comparison.

Skipping all the sounding rockets with their integrated payloads, I will only show the launchers capable of carrying separated payloads.

First up,

SkyBolt IV

 

Spoiler

 

Seen here with its Test Rig II adaptor for mounting components for high altitude testing.

 

Barely more than the proverbial trashcan full 'o' boom with a fairing on top, SkyBolt IV never-the-less was the booster which put the first Kerbal outside of Kerbins atmosphere.

Lacking the performance to get its 750kg payloads anywhere near orbital velocities, SkyBolt IV instead aimed higher putting its payload into steep ballistic trajectories for microgravity environment testing.

First flight; Day 27.

Only 2 launches performed, one of which being with the world famous Ascender II capsule.

 

 

SkyBolt V

 

Spoiler

 

An early SkyBolt V seen here with the fixed aerodynamic surfaces, the later "SkyBolt V-Light" had movable surfaces but reduced Dv resulting in lower payload capacity.

The SkyBolt V Primary stage has a lot in common with the 'IV', it is a big cylinder of solid fuel designed simply to get as much speed and altitude as possible for as little effort as possible, where the 'V' differs to the 'IV' is the addition of a controllable liquid fuel upper stage, this is what allows an orbit to be achieved.

 

The first production booster capable of putting a payload into orbit, SkyBolt V is responsible for the first artificial satellites and the advancement of high altitude research. After being made obsolete by the HoundDog I on Day 63, SkyBolt V was shelved, however it was to make a glorious comeback for two flights nearly 80 days later, the second of which was another first for Kerbal-kind, a nuclear engine test.

Although categorised as a 1 tonne booster, SkyBolt V relied on its payload to be able to complete final circularisation under its own power.

First Flight; Day 42

8 launches (4 as 'Light' variant), 1 'Light' variant failed on launch resulting in total loss.

 

 

HoundDog I + Ib

 

Spoiler

 

The HoundDog series is a marked improvement over the SkyBolts, no longer simply very large sounding rockets, these craft are designed from the ground up (see what I did there?) as dedicated payload lifters.

The 'Ib' variant is seen here, easily identified by its long twin solid motors and its beefier stature compared with the slender 'I' and the prototype with its short checkerboard motors.

A major departure from previous lifters is abandoning the pure solid fuelled primary stage, instead the KeroLox Skipper motor is simply assisted for the first 60-80 seconds of flight by a quad arrangement of strapon boosters. As an option for higher performance payloads, HoundDog I offers the LV-505 hypergolic upper stage, this increases the total Dv at the expense of payload mass. Dv of over 12,000 is possible, realising not only KSO but Mun and Minmus orbits/landings as well.

 

The early days of HoundDog were marred by not only industrial sabotage and design errors, but also changes in international law affecting its very construction. To this end there was an early design revision, uprating the solid boosters, this was considered part of the prototype phase so did not result in a designation change. After 9 flights however, significant changes had to be made to comply with international environmental concerns, this resulted in the 'Ib' designation.

Officially rated as a 3 tonne lifter, this was a deadweight LKO payload capacity, the vast majority of payloads lifted contained their own propulsion allowing them to exceed this weight. HoundDog was also commonly equipped with the extended upper stage which allowed payloads to be sent into high KeoStationary orbits, especially useful for the creation of the Kerb-Net satellite ring.

HoundDog Ib is however hampered by its fixed dimension fairings, the 1.25m fairing base even with extended width cannot accommodate very wide payloads.

First Flight 'I'; Day 63. 9 Flights in this configuration, 2 as prototype.

First Flight 'Ib'; Day 99. 22 Flights so far, The Ib is still an active design and is used for the Ascender IV crew vehicle.

 

HoundDog II

 

Spoiler

 

The beginning of the race for size, demand for more and more complex craft put pressure on the VAB to develop lifters capable of putting not only heavier payloads into orbit, but bulkier ones as well. The HoundDog II is the first lifter to utilise adjustable profile fairings which allow a wide variety of shapes to be contained, even if the base is a fixed 2m diameter.

Taking the concept of the optional upper stage from SkyBolt V and HoundDog Ib, HoundDog II incorporates it into the base model, uprating it to the more powerful KW Vesta motor with its more efficient KeroLox fuel mix.

HoundDog II also abandons the iconic twin twins arrangement of solid motors, relying on a single pair of larger boosters instead.

 

Brought into service alongside the already established HoundDog Ib, the II was aimed at the heavy/bulky payload market and quickly made its name as being just as reliable and remarkably efficient as well.

Rated for 5 tonnes deadweight to LKO, the actual maximum achieved for a self powered payload is just short of 6.5 tonnes.

First Flight; Day 167. 8 Flights so far, HoundDog II is still an operational vehicle.

 

HoundDog III

 

Spoiler

 

Picking up the pace from HoundDog II, HoundDog III simply makes the numbers bigger. This puts the future of HoundDog II under threat because it will no longer hold a niche.

Although in concept HoundDog III is simply an enlargement of the II, there have had to be some design changes, most obviously in propulsion. The venerable Skipper engine has had to be replaced from the core stage by a trio of twin nozzle KW Maverick I-D motors. The increased bulk also required a beefier kick off the pad, so 4x KW Globe VI solid boosters are strapped on for the first 60 seconds. The upper stage has also had to be enlarged, a Rockomax service engine running on the incredibly efficient cryogenic HydroLox fuel mix allows heavier payloads to be accelerated up to orbital velocities, however due to the nature of the fuel this stage will not be able to hold position in orbit and perform secondary duties as a transfer stage.

 

HoundDog III is the latest design from the VAB, straight out of testing. It builds upon the strengths of its predecessors whilst also pushing further and harder than ever before. Even so with progress going the way it is then it is only fair to expect that its dominance as the largest craft in the arsenal is to be a short lived one.

Boosting not only the deadweight LKO payload to 10 tonnes, HoundDog III also has 2.5m fairing base allowing some of the widest payloads yet designed to be launched.

First Flight; Day 227, 1 flight so far, currently 3 craft in production

 

Direct comparison

Family photograph, seen from left to right, SkyBolt V, HoundDog Ib, HoundDog II, HoundDog III.

Spoiler: Because that big red button was too tempting !!

Spoiler

 

 

 

But as you said "Concise" here you go

Name________First Flight___Launch Mass_____Rated Payload

SkyBolt V, _____ Day 42 _______14,500kg _______ 1,000kg LKO

HoundDog Ib, ___ Day 63 ______ 50,700kg ________3,000kg LKO (without upper stage)

HoundDog II, ____ Day 167 _____ 87,100kg ________5,000kg LKO

HoundDog III, ____ Day 227 ____ 136,300kg ________10,000kg LKO

Edited December 4, 2015 by Shania_L

[CatastrophicFailure]

Aw yeah, that's the stuff.

Love to see evolution at work like that, like how the humble Atlas became the monster it is today.

[Red Dwarf]

Can't wait to see more of this, man. I love seeing professional-looking space programs!

[Shania_L]

Following on from last weeks technical specifications post, this week we are back to actual progress reports.

 

---

Day 227, KSC

Spoiler

 

Desperate to find a legitimate use for the HoundDog III, techs from the VAB turned to private industry, and finally got themselves a useful mission.

C7 Aerospace had developed a prototype engine that they wanted testing in low Kerbin orbit, they called it the R.A.P.I.E.R but as Kerbals found the punctuation difficult to pronounce they tended to shorten it to Rapier. In itself the Engine test would be within the capacity of a HoundDog I, however it was decided that use of this as a combined engine and launch vehicle test would be more than covered by the payout, Mortimer gave the green light.

Replacing the original 8 tonnes of lead plating with 6.5tonnes of lead plating and a rapier engine the HoundDog III was rolled out to the pad in short order. 4x KW rocketry Globe VI solid motors (rated at 297KN each) and 3x KW Rocketry Maverick-1D KeroLox engines (rated at 366KN each, but strangled by atmospheric density) ignite on the pad.

The III follows a much more aggressive launch profile than either the I or II, having a target TtW ratio of 1.5 at liftoff, compared with 1.2 in previous models. This is partially due to difficulties experienced in low speed stability with previous models, but mainly because the KW solid boosters can only be tweaked in thrust output and not burn time, if HoundDog does not reach sufficient speed and altitude before they burn out then the core stage simply cannot lift the vessel. The core stage also must be run at 100% throttle from liftoff right to burnout simply to burn off enough fuel to reduce mass to achieve a TtW of 1:1 at solid motor jettison.

All goes well with the first 1.5 stages, and as the KeroLox core stage is run dry it is jettisoned allowing the HydroLox fuelled Rockomax Service engine (169KN) upper stage to take over the acceleration to orbit. Having passed 91Km altitude and atmospheric conditions are no longer an issue, the fairings have also been dropped revealing the payload.

Reaching the prescribed 90x110km orbit with 1,000Dv to spare C7s test program is initiated returning valuable results for the development of an engine which would be very welcome in the future of the KSC.

Part Test Contract Complete, 845,449 Funds, 248 Science, 517 Reputation.

Once payment had been received, controllers re-ignited the upper stage boosting it up to a 2,500Km apoapsis before igniting the sepratron de-orbit system causing the entire craft to re-enter and burnup.

Mission cost, 86,874 Funds, no recovery.

 

Day 229, KSC

Spoiler

 

Continued preparations for a return to the Mun advance another stage with todays launch of the improved Decender Ib atop a HoundDog II.

Decender has been on a weight loss program and despite gaining a number of new science experiments it has lost an estimated 800kg. Most of this comes from the exchange of crew accommodation from the Mk1 capsule, with its integrated heatshield, to the Mk1 lander can. There are benefits and drawbacks to this change, the lander can allows use of the larger 'regular' docking port, but it possesses no shielding for re-entry protection making a direct return trajectory impossible (well, suicidal if tried).

Attaining a 163x154km orbit sooner, and more efficiently, than expected, HoundDog II still retains 741Dv in its upper stage, despite only containing an uncontrollable de-orbit system it is decided to retain this stage for orbital manoeuvres.

The extra reserve of Dv allows an aggressive course to be plotted for interception with the Medea assembly area, 290Dv is burnt to increase Ap to 1056Km, two orbits later a further 240Dv is burnt to circularise with Medea.

Docking the fully fuelled decender module is hard enough with RCS arrangement optimised for the capsule after ascent from the Mun, add into the mix a large (but mostly empty) upper stage and it becomes farcical. Fortunately Medea has been equipped with its own RCS system, this allows both craft to align with each other resulting in no lateral movements being required, simply point at the other craft and approach.

Once the craft are docked, the remaining KeroLox fuel is pumped into Medea as a free bonus before the upper stage is aligned prograde and its de-orbit system is activated.

Medea/Decender awaits in its 155km parking orbit for a refuelling Hector vessel and a crew.

Mission Cost. 108,435 Funds, 2x820 recovered from boosters.

 

Day 233, KSC

Spoiler

 

The Kerb-Net central committee has decided that their latest prime-time talent shows should be available to a far larger audience, to this end they have put forward funds to extend the current broadcast range to include Duna and Eve. Nobody saw fit to explain that there was neither a) any method of receiving signals at these planets, any one there to actually watch (or pay premium-rate calls to vote the contestants out)

Never-the-less KSC wasnt going to turn down a contract offering Funds upfront. Also, HoundDog III was the ideal launcher for what was turning out to be quite a large communications satellite. The interplanetary dish required weighed in at some 750kg each, and Centus V would require 3 of them, add to this a propulsion system capable of attaining and de-orbiting from 10Mm altitude and you end up with a sizable craft, HoundDog III is most definitely needed.

Seen here at core stage burnout, the upper stage will be used to boost the payload as high as possible and Centus V-Kf will complete the burn on its own fuel supply. Mass of sat and upper stage at stable 160Km orbit = 11,080Kg

Inserting to a 160Km equatorial orbit, the transfer burn to 10Mm is timed so as to position Kf at 90 degrees to the current occupiers of that altitude, the Mun/Minmus Net Centus III Kd+Ke. The HoundDog upper stage is just short of the required 1477Dv for the burn so it is jettissoned after expending its fuel and Centus' own LV-909 finishes the burn. The upper stage incorporates an autonomous control system which activates a pair of de-orbit seperatrons at Ap to burnup the debris.

Centus circularises itself at 10,000km, nicely separated from Kd and Ke, with over 2,600Dv remaining in its tank its sister craft (Centus V-Kg) can downsize its onboard fuel supply and still retain fuel for an end of life de-orbit manoeuvre. Finally the dishes are activated and aligned on their destinations, one for Duna, one for Eve and one dedicated to targeting craft in transfer between planets. Having a range of 384Gm they are more than capable of communicating with these planets even at solar opposition, as well as Moho, even for 3/4 of the Joolian orbit.

A sister craft will be required in opposition to Kf, to ensure 100% uptime, even though the expected blind spot of Kerbin/Mun passing across the LoS is very small, it is considered that this blind spot is most likely to occur just prior to a Duna lander touching down.

Mission Cost, 95,761 Funds, no recovery.

 

Day 234, KSC

Spoiler

 

In an attempt to intercept the Medea assembly area as it passes overhead Hector is launched a few hours after sunset, HoundDog II lights up the night sky for any Kerbals not safely tucked up away from the reach of the night creatures.

Pulling nearly 4Gs at core stage burnout Hector circularises its own orbit at 163x154Km, slightly ahead of Medea, it burns a further 52Dv raising its Ap so that 1.5 orbits later it can intercept and dock. Weighing in at 6,400Kg most of which is KeroLox fuel for Medeas main engines.

Once Medeas tanks are topped up, a quick stock take reveals a 10 Litre shortfall of UDMH, used for the Mun ascent engines and RCS systems, Ascender also uses this for its orbital motor so it can be scavenged from there. Otherwise Medea checks out as ready to depart, just awaiting a pilot.

Mission cost, 56,765 Funds, 2x824 recovered from boosters.

 

Day 235, KSC

Spoiler

 

Elory Kerman glared at the door of his cell, he had had little else to do for the last 3 days, ever since he had been announced as the pilot of the next Mun mission KSC had taken steps to prevent his becoming 'incapacitated' as had happened last time. He had only signed up as a pilot because his favourite tv show had assured him that space was full of (very) friendly alien priestesses and the such, but he knew now that there certainly werent any of them on the Mun!

Three armed guards arrived just after lunch to 'escort' him to the VAB where he was rather un-ceremonially loaded into the capsule of Ascender IV.

HoundDog Ib blasts off a few hours later that afternoon as Medea passes overhead, inserting into a 154x95km orbit in an attempt to make up for the sluggish ascent profile Ascender finally catches up some 2.5 orbits later. Elory and 10 liters of UDMH are transferred into Decender Ib.

Elory performs the last systems checks and grudgingly reports to KSC that all systems are go, next Mun transfer window Kerbals will return to the Mun.

Mission cost, 39,147 Funds, 2x940 recovered from boosters.

 

 

Edited December 4, 2015 by Shania_L

[Shania_L]

Day 236, LKO

Spoiler

 

Elory discovers to his satisfaction that the Mk1 lander can has, in comparison to the Mk1 capsule, plenty of leg room and additional snak storage space. After a final check of systems ensuring all of the tanks are fully topped off Elory confirms a mission go back to KSC and begins the decoupling procedure.

A slightly easier process than with the last mission due to the inline docking of Ascender and Hector, but extracting the adaptor from between Medea and Decender is still not an ideal solution.

Weighing in at 16,112kg, the second iteration Munship is a trim 400kg lighter and has around 700Dv more than last time. The addition of RCS ports to Medea makes alignment easier, however the flight computer still cannot be trusted to rotate the ship whilst in its fully fuelled state without spinning out of control.

Elory plots a 2,270Dv ejection burn to intercept Mun, this equates to roughly 7,000Kg of KeroLox, or half the mass of the ship. Exact Dv remaining aboard is difficult to calculate due to both Decenders and Medeas engines having been activated, but I estimate it is around 1,400 Dv remaining aboard Medea.

Elory takes off his helmet and breaks out the snax, as he carries no new orbital science instruments he has 2 days to fill and very little to do, thankfully he brought along the latest boxset of his favourite tv show.

 

Day 237, KSC

Spoiler

 

The Centus communications division has been eager to get their second Mk V relay sat off the ground, there is a contract payment waiting and being sidelined whilst the manned missions were launched means they have been ready for a day or two now.

HoundDog III blasts off at dawn carrying the (trimmed down) Centus V-Kg Duna/Eve relay.

Kerbals have no fear of launching their rockets through a little cloud cover, even thick black dawn storm clouds, after all its only water right?

HoundDog III boosts up to an equatorial 171x162Km orbit, to await alignment with the three relays already in the 10Mm orbit slot, aiming to get Ap aligned 180degrees from its sister probe to ensure 100% communications uptime. With the mass reduction in Centus' own fuel capacity HoundDogs upper stage is able to make the entire 1,470Dv burn to 10Mm.

At 10Mm Ap the upper stage burns 500Dv (2/3 of its remaining stocks) to boost Centus' Pe before decoupling, spinning about and de-orbiting itself. Centus then burns its internal fuel supply to complete the circularisation burn with 1,400Dv to spare for an end of life retro burn. Weighing in at 4,300kg Centus aligns and activates its dishes completing the Kerbin end of a Duna / Eve network.

Contract complete (after 4 days uptime) Duna/Eve Comn Network. 140,094 Funds, 20 Science, 38 Reputation.

Mission cost 95,500 no recovery.

This makes the Duna/Eve relay an essentially loss making venture, the 2 relays costing a total of 191,200 Funds. However the hope is they will enable further missions away from Kerbin which could produce much more lucrative incomes. (Then ofcourse there is the additional pay-tv subscriptions from an entire 2 planets worth of viewers)

 

Day 238, High Mun Orbit

Spoiler

 

Medea crosses into Mun SOI on a 3degree inclined orbit with a Pe of 25Km. It is decided that no adjustment is required and so Elory plots his 705Dv capture burn at Pe. Predictably this burn happens on the dark side, but we brought plenty of lights (even though it seems we couldnt decide on a colour scheme), you will just have to believe me when I say that the backdrop is the Mun!

After the burn the combined ship retains some 640Dv, however this will never be used as such, because it is taking the mass of the full lander into consideration, on return from the Mun surface Decender will be considerably lighter. This will hopefully raise the Dv of Medea to the point it can make not only a Mun escape burn, but also Kerbin intercept without the need to aerobrake .... because we have no heatshield!

 

Day 239, Low Mun Orbit

Spoiler

 

Elory emerges from the far side of the Mun, re-establishing visual contact with Kerbin he realises just how lonely the universe is without the familiar blue sphere hanging in the sky.

Roused from his philosophical stupor by mission control yelling at him that his landing site is approaching and he has yet to decouple Elory quickly grabs all the snax he can from Medeas stock before decoupling and consigning himself to Decenders onboard 3 day supply.

The decent stage packs some 2,800Dv for the Aerozine fuelled LV-909, the chosen landing site is on the southern edge of the Northwest Crater, The Helmdar Biome scan has reported something unusual in that location which has encouraged funding from a research institute for ground based samples to be taken in the area.

Performing a short 50Dv burn Elory transfers to sub-orbital flight and targets his impact location just beyond his desired landing spot. Gradual lowering of Radar altitude readings passing across Muns Midlands indicates fairly flat terrain. However even perfectly flat terrain is very fatal whilst still travelling at 1,400m/sec, Elory loses his nerve at around 6,000m and begins his retro burn.

This turned out to be something of a good idea, because although the Midlands biome he had been flying over was fairly flat... the edge of the Northwest Crater certainly isnt!

Burning 1,800Dv Elory manages to find a shallow slope on which to park and puts Decender down gently onto the regolith in the shadow of a quite impressive crater wall.

Spoiler: Anomaly spoiler.

Spoiler

 

The anomaly I saw on the ScanSat map is the Neil Armstrong Memorial, it is rendered properly on the ground even with x64 scaling, but I was unable to spot it during my decent leading to me landing some 130km away from it ... I finally located it using extreme zoom

Whoever said x64 creates flat featureless terrain certainly never visited this bit of the Mun!

 

 

Elory soon gets to work performing a range of surface sample experiments, storing all the data which cannot be transmitted for full value he still manages to broadcast some 261 Science back to KSC.

Contract parameters complete, Surface Samples from NorthWest Crater.

Surface Laser Ablation, 17,560 Funds 15 Science, 35 Reputation

Magnetometer Scan, 15,871 Funds 12 Science, 32 Reputation

Temperature Scan, 19,080 Funds 20 Science, 38 Reputation

Contract Complete, Surface Science From NorthWest Crater, 85,204Funds, 146 Reputation.

With 978Dv remaining in the decent stage, Elory decides to perform a small hop slightly further south, if he can clear the crater wall he will be able to sample the Midlands biome.

Leaving nothing but his flag and footprints behind Elory blasts off, landing as close to the crater rim as he dares Elory puts down in the Midlands biome 41 Km south, and 2km higher than his last landing. With only 103Dv remaining the decent engine is shutdown.

Repeating all of the experiments again, Elory sends home another 261 Science, saving the un-broadcastable data in his capsule.

 

 

Edited December 4, 2015 by Shania_L

[CatastrophicFailure]

Is the gold torrid tank made from Procedurals, or is that a mod?

Perhaps it's best Elory didn't get any closer to that anomaly, some secrets are best left... undisturbed.

Still, you may want to keep a close eye on him after his return.

[Shania_L]

Ha! yes, I honestly didnt know which anomaly that was until I saw it ..... also now that I have completed a biome scan I can see that Sigberts landing was pretty close to another anomaly, one which I didnt even look for while I was there .. doh

The choice of landing site was purely based on having a contract for surface science in the NW crater, otherwise I would have aimed to land near one of the Lunic probes and retrieve the science from them.

Elory is already under disciplinary action for his behaviour before the last flight, the last thing I need is psychotic episodes!!. Hopefully I will be able to relegate pilots to Low orbit activities and get some scientists flying missions. Only the ascent from Mun is requiring manual piloting, everything else has a probe core available.

Err the 'toroidal tank', yes that .... its actually 8 cylindrical procedural tanks which slightly clip each other. I had to add them as 2 sets of 4 tanks though so I could put landing legs on 4 of them symmetrically. They are radially mounted onto a cone shaped tank inside them to which the LV-909 is actually mounted, fuel lines are required for fuel to drain from the radial tanks.