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

[Shania_L]

13 hours ago, GarrisonChisholm said:

Wow.  That is incredible-  and weren't you really hurting for funds a while back?  What a turn-around!  Time for some ridiculously expensive rocket experimentation. :]

Was hurting for Funds, still hurting for Funds, the last R&D upgrade costs something like 6.3Million, I have 2.5 currently. So I still have a lot of saving to do.

5 hours ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

wait a sec what happened to poor Nelsy??

Nelsy is still falling from Minmus, its a 15 day fall, So I had time for a few missions in the meantime He is not lost in space, I am still determined to save him after all he is carrying a lot of science !!

[CatastrophicFailure]

Ah so. Your space program is truly a marvel of machine-like efficiency. Heartless and unwavering 

[Shania_L]

On 12/12/2015 at 2:05 PM, CatastrophicFailure said:

Ah so. Your space program is truly a marvel of machine-like efficiency. Heartless and unwavering 

Machine like in some aspects certainly, the science must go on! But efficiency? have you seen my moon missions? Perhaps I'll settle for psychotic machine ... there is no use crying over every mistake.

Day 275, Low Kerbin Orbit

Spoiler

 

After spinning around Kerbin 4 times, Ascender V finally gets an intercept with Pandora, approaching to within 2km Sigbert gets his first view of the station and can confirm to KSC that the solar arms did infact extend correctly. As fate would so often have it, this intercept happened just before sunset.

At approximately 500m from Pandora Sigbert disabled Ascenders main motor and fired up the RCS system for final approach and docking ... he was met with a rather noticeable amount of nothing in response. Someone had forgotten to plug the RCS ports in.
Docking was only possible through Pandora having more than enough SAS torque to point its own docking port at Ascender whilst Ascender approached slowly and did the same. Had any additional modules or ships already been docked then this would not have been possible. But then thats what test flights are for afterall!

Sigbert performs a short EVA to affix 3 strut end points around the base of Pandora to serve as anchor points for future structural modules. After making note of the mess inside the lab, KSC decides that including the welcome hamper in the initial launch was a bad idea.

Contract complete, Kerbin orbit space station. 5 Kerb capacity, research lab, power, dock, antenna. 96,111 Funds, 42 Science, 24 Reputation.

Sigbert, being a famous pilot and all, undocks leaving the clean-up job to someone, well, someone who isnt him.
Only a short burn is required to put Ascender on a re-entry trajectory, Sigbert and his capsule are recovered from the sea just (6000km) south of KSC.

3,090 Funds, 5 Science recovered from ocean.

Mission cost 105,440 Funds
Minus recovery and contracts. Mission cost = 6,239 Funds with 47 science gained.

 

Day 283, High Kerbin Orbit

Spoiler

 

With other divisions and projects put on hold, KSC fast-tracks a second Ascender V launch, this one will actually have a mission, not simply a joy ride. It will be required to rescue Nelsy from his historic Minmus mission once Medea captures into orbit.

Medea is in a better position in terms of fuel remaining than Medusa was, but Medea cannot afford such a harsh aerobrake manoeuvre not having a heatshield at all. Nelsy burns 400 of the 920Dv remaining in Medeas Kerolox engines just prior to atmosphere intercept to 'take the edge off it'

Hitting 91km at 8,500m/sec, although Nelsy survived Medea did not escape unharmed, 2 of its solar panels, both antenna and one of the funky lights overtemped and were destroyed. Capture was achieved though, 73x13,000km orbit at 13 degrees.

With the damage sustained by Medea, its increasingly obvious shortcomings and the fact that a replacement had already been designed, it is decided that Medea had become disposable. At Ap the last few Dv remaining in Medea are burnt to reduce the inclination to 3 degrees and it is decoupled to re-enter for one final time, Nelsy aboard the Decender Ic capsule performs a smalll burn to raise its Pe just out of atmo.

 

Day 284, Low Kerbin Orbit

Spoiler

 

Passing through Pe again, Nelsy burns all of the remaining Dv in the Decender Ic capsule, 450Dv manages to reduce his final orbit to 100x4,920km at 3 degrees, with this final burn Decender too becomes inert and Nelsy can now only await rescue. KSC will launch the Ascender V as soon as it passes beneath Decenders orbit so as to launch directly into the correct inclination.

 

Day 285, KSC

Spoiler

 

Midmorning launch of Ascender V atop a HoundDog III, this time the RCS units are correctly plumbed in, and any additional mass that could be removed has been, i.e the KAS tanks, and the extended range life support tanks.

Piloted by first rate Pilot Elory Kerman this will serve as his acclimatization flight, rookie scientist Jedke Kerman is simply along for the ride. Launched straight up into a 100x107km orbit, only a tiny 27Dv burn is required to match Decenders track.

2/3 of the Dv required to get a single orbit intercept (1130m/sec) will come from excess capacity in the HDIII upper stage, the remaining will come from the ample (1600m/sec) in Ascenders service module. Peaking at 5,500km intercept will be at a dawn Pe.

A fairly simple incercept gets complicated by an excessive burn resulting in far too much fuel being burnt than should strictly have been required (read, I messed it up badly) but none-the-less Ascender meets Decender and Nelsy finally gets himself (and his 48 reports) into a craft that he has a better than not chance of dying in.

After taking one final swing around the planet, Ascender gracefully drops Decender onto a death dive and lines itself up for a nice shallow re-entry. Burning all remaining fuel in the service module just before ditching it proves to be a good idea as Ascender burns through every single kg of ablator it has (370) but fortunately even though the crew get toastie toes nothing explodes and they are deposited safely home.

As soon as the altimeter reads 0m, Nelsy eager to taste fresh air after 31 days in space, leaps out of the capsule and promptly falls in the ocean.

recovery, 377 science (565 converted to Funds), 9,238 Funds capsule recovery.

Contract completed, Science from space around Minmus - 92,189 Funds, 1 Science, 108 Reputation
                 Parameter completed, Mystery Goo from Minmus Flats - 15,980 Funds, 11 Science, 17 Reputation
Contract completed, Minmus Flats surface science - 90,889 Funds, 82 Reputation.

Nelsy gains 9 xp, leaping to 2nd rank, making him the highest ranking Kerbal, despite only having a single flight.
Jedke gains 2xp, progressing to 1st rank, for doing basically nothing.
Elory, gets an erm, nod from Wernher for a job well done.

Total cost of the Manned Minmus landing;

Medea I, already in orbit following its Mun mission    - 0
2 Hector refuelling flights                                          - 109,864
Decender Ic launch                                                   - 105,902
Ascender IV crew launch (Nelsy)                               - 37,493
Ascender IVb rescue mission (Minmus snak wagon) - 50,859
Ascender V recovery craft (Elory+Jedke)                  - 91,235

Total cost = 395,353 Funds

Total earned;

Contract Minmus Flag                        - 122,075
Contract Surface EVA (total)              - 214,374
Contract Surface Flats Science         - 157,989
Contract Minmus space Science x2   - 181,806

Total earnings = 676,244 Funds

Mission Profit = 280,891 Funds.

Probably the first time a manned mission has earned back more than it cost to setup .... especially for me!

 

 

[Sanic]

How do you get those fuels? I never seem to get the hang of installing any Real Fuel mod...

[Shania_L]

On 26/12/2015 at 4:22 PM, Sanic said:

How do you get those fuels? I never seem to get the hang of installing any Real Fuel mod...

I'll assume that for the current KSP version it is the same as any previous versions, once you have installed RealFuels (plus any hard requirements) and chosen a pack of engine configs then it just works ..
For me that was RealFuels, and the Stockalike engine configs, with procedural tanks as an optional (although very useful) extra.

All your fuel tanks start empty, you place an engine underneath and configure that how you want, then you just right click the empty fuel tank and you get the option to fill it with the correct mix of the correct fuel.

[Sanic]

42 minutes ago, Shania_L said:

I'll assume that for the current KSP version it is the same as any previous versions, once you have installed RealFuels (plus any hard requirements) and chosen a pack of engine configs then it just works ..
For me that was RealFuels, and the Stockalike engine configs, with procedural tanks as an optional (although very useful) extra.

All your fuel tanks start empty, you place an engine underneath and configure that how you want, then you just right click the empty fuel tank and you get the option to fill it with the correct mix of the correct fuel.

Thanks so much! Sadly I have no engine effects anymore, but it's a fine trade off for me.

[CatastrophicFailure]

1 hour ago, Sanic said:

Thanks so much! Sadly I have no engine effects anymore, but it's a fine trade off for me.

RealPlume is handling engine effects at the moment, you'll need to add that but it's quite worth it. 

[CatastrophicFailure]

@Shania_L I finally got around to orbiting Minmus myself, and IIRC you mention 1200m/s capture burns in a couple places. I think mine was about a quarter of that, were you on really aggressive intercepts?

Also, MOAR plz?

[Shania_L]

12 hours ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

@Shania_L I finally got around to orbiting Minmus myself, and IIRC you mention 1200m/s capture burns in a couple places. I think mine was about a quarter of that, were you on really aggressive intercepts?

Also, MOAR plz?

I do a 2,500m/sec escape burn from Kerbin (which is more than enough for escape velocity) and aim the escape angle to get an intercept. 150km LKO to a 25km Minmus intercept in 8-9 days, If I want to go for one of those "efficient"  transfers it takes more like 15 days. Capture burn is just around 1100m/sec somewhere IIRC and that captures to a low 20ish km orbit.
So yeah, I do quite aggressive transits even for probe vessels, just call me impatient

 

More is coming, I have been spending time (again) trying to get something working in a more up-to-date KSP version, but alas no beans as of yet.
I do have a very pretty 1.0.5 install with a very similar mod setup (running under 3Gb RAM) my problem is pulling my progress across.

One of the hefty problems I have is that I am running a re-pricing mod that makes fuels and tanks more expensive ... it has renamed all my procedural tanks and this particular mod is no longer supported in 1.0.5. Practically every vessel I have contains one, if not more procedural tanks, so I'm looking at having to manually edit every single vessel in existence.

Then ofcourse there is the entire career structure, science I have already collected, the redesigns to the tech tree since 0.90, bleugh, I may be staying in 0.90 until 1.1.

[Shania_L]

 

Day 286, KSC

Spoiler

 

Late afternoon launch of the increasingly rare HoundDog I, carrying a lightweight Mun probe, Verity VII.

Verity VII has been commissioned by an outside agency to study the material composition of the Muns surface through orbital observation of debris thrown up following high velocity impact events. Verity is made up of an orbiter carrying the spectroscopic telescope and four independent impact probes which consist of little more than a solid fuel motor and a minimal guidance system.

 

As it turns out Verity VII is just a little too light, HDI managed to put not only the probe but also the entire core stage into a 200x210km equatorial orbit ... with some 870m/sec remaining in its tank. As the core stage does possess its own de-orbit system the stage is retained to provide the initial kick to get Verity VII on its Mun transfer. The higher Ap will also assist the core stage in ensuring its fairly weak retro system will be enough to have the Pe intercept the ground.

Verity VII seen here still mounted atop HDI core stage in LKO awaiting the burn point for Mun transfer.

The burn point occurs just as Kerbol drops below the horizon, with 650KN on tap the Skipper main engine has to be de-tuned to 25% otherwise it would exert over 14G of load onto the structure. Burning everything it has the core stage manages an Ap of 4Mm, Verity is de-coupled and burns the remaining 1,380m/sec on its own motor to achieve a Mun intercept in 3d time.
Weighing in at only 770Kg Verity VII could have been put in orbit by a SkyBolt V, the only issue being the Skybolts limited fairing diameter resulting in the need to use a HDI despite it being significantly over powered.

Verity seen here burning away from the HDI core stage shortly after separation, the core stage successfully fired its retros at AP for a destructive re-entry.

Mission cost 58,369 Funds, 2x940 recovered from boosters.

 

Day 287, KSC

Spoiler

 

From one extreme to the other, next up on the KSC launchpad is a HoundDog III sporting the largest fairing AIES can supply.

Launching in the early hours of the morning HDIII comes off the pad like a ... well like a rocket, and not just for the obvious reasons. This is another case, like Verity VII, where a large rocket is needed not simply for mass, but volume. This payload weighs in at only 4t so doesnt need the 10t lifting capacity, what it requires the 2.5m fairing base.

Instead of levelling out to aim for a standard 150km orbit, this launch keeps its nose high and gets a sub-orbital arc topping out at 545km.
This launch carries the second part of the Pandora station, and will allow the station to carry out its intended purpose. Although empty at the moment it contains large tanks for storing both Aerozine/NTO hypergolic fuels as well as the cryogenic KeroLox in refrigerated storage.

With the low mass of the tanks the HDIII upper stage has plenty of Dv to make the intercept, however time is the limiting factor. The tanks do not possess any method of producing electricity and the battery on the stage is only intended to sustain the de-orbiting system until it can fire at Ap.

Burning nearly 600Dv at Ap brings the craft orbital (162x792km) and aligns for an intercept with the station in only 1/2 an orbit.

With such an aggressive intercept plotted it means that the two craft encounter each other with widely differing velocity and flight direction, 430m/sec is required to equalise prior to a docking attempt.

Docking proved to be fairly easy, automated stability systems on both craft (remote-tech attitude hold system) allowed our pilot to concentrate on lateral alignment and velocity and leave the rotational component to the autopilot.

Once docked the remaining 2,400liters of LOx in the upper stage is transferred into Pandoras new storage tanks, the H2 is not required so will burnup once the stage is discarded.

Pandora is still fairly lightweight at only 17t (105 parts) but once its tanks are filled it will be another story entirely. Main storage 11,500 Liters of Kerosene and 20,600 Liters of Liquid Oxygen in refrigerated storage and secondary capacity of 5,000 Liters of both Aerozine and NTO. Two new standard docking ports designed for use by re-fuelling craft are located further away from the solar arrays, the upper ports are for access to the crew compartments.
In addition to tankage for rocket fuel, the new module carries a pair of large life support units allowing Pandora to keep alive a minimum crew of 2 for 85D or a full crew of 4 for 42D.

Mission cost 114,808 Funds, 0 recovery.

 

Later that same day, KSC

Spoiler

 

The first of two re-fuelling craft, although they share the Hector name and role with the previous iteration that is about the only similarity Hector II shares.

Launched atop a HoundDog III following a similar steep ascent profile as the tank did Hector II tops out at 653km, a 212 m/sec burn lines it up for an intercept with Pandora only 3/4 of an orbit later.

Hector weighs in at some 9.5t, and only possesses around 250Dv of its own, fortunately intercept and docking only required ~100m/sec.
Hectors central payload tank, can carry 8,000 Liters of pretty much anything, the outer tanks carry the MMH/NTO fuel for its own usage, although this can be easily swapped for alternative configurations of the motors.

Hector seen here approaching Pandora, fortunately despite a complete failure of the RCS system Hector was still able to dock thanks to its powerful reaction wheels and much end over end spinning to align at distance from the station before a slow and steady final approach. (Turns out RCS wont even look for its fuel in radial tanks despite cross-feed enabler)

6,000 Liters Kerosene, 1,000 Liters of NTO + Aerozine delivered, Hector undocks and puts itself into a destructive re-entry.

Mission cost 102,536 Funds, No recovery.

 

Day 288, Mun

Verity VII, recently renamed Verity VII-Mu due to an -Mi sister craft being put into production, enters Mun SOI. 80m/sec burn to increase orbital inclination to 23degrees and lower Pe to 17km.

Day 289, Mun

Spoiler

 

Verity VII-Mu performs a reduced capture burn to put itself into an eccentric 17 x 3,750km orbit (6hr period).

A very simple craft Verity carries only a single instrument, the orbital spectroscope (large gold bit on top), around its midsection are the four impact probes designed to create the plume of material to be observed.

As soon as Verity clears the shadow of Mun on its long climb towards Ap, the first probe is detached. The simple onboard guidance system can only process one command, point at the centre of the closest gravity field and fire the motor.

20 minutes later the 40kg probe impacts the Muns Midlands at some 2,870 m/sec releasing a cloud of debris, 165MJ of energy and a cool 62.5 units of science.

Contract complete, Observe an impact with a Flash-o-meter above the Mun. 235,394 Funds, 12 Science, 2 Reputation.

With the entire mission costing less than 60K to fly this is quite a profitable outcome, especially with 3 more probes already in place just awaiting new contracts!

 

Day 289, KSC

Spoiler

 

A second Hector II launch, late in the evening in order to intercept Pandora, 491x618km orbit.

Docking complicated by RCS failure, again! This time probably due to swapping the mode of Hectors motors from MMH/NTO to KeroLox, this change was made due to Hectors pure KeroLox payload being significantly heavier than the last flight. As it turned out this was a necessary change as Hector did indeed have to burn some of its payload to complete the intercept.

Arriving early on Day 290 Hector delivers 2,800L Kerosene and 4,800L LOx, before undocking and performing a destructive re-entry.

Mission cost 99,885 Funds, 0 recovery.

 

 

Edited January 26, 2016 by Shania_L

[Shania_L]

Day 290, KSC Administration building

In a slight change of direction, the "Fund Raising" strategy was cancelled today, experts have decided/guessed that perhaps a better income could be sourced by allowing reputation to build up and accepting higher quality contracts than directly converting Reputation into funds... We shall see.
The science -> funds contract has been left in operation.

Day 290, KSC Launch pad

Spoiler

 

Now that Pandora station contains sufficient systems to sustain life, it is time to send up a crew. A HoundDog III will lift an Ascender V crew vehicle, Scientist Jedke Kerman is the only veteran on this flight having previously visited space to rescue Nelsy. Rookie Science Officer Billy-Bobdo and Flight Engineer Orgun Kerman (who makes history as the first Engineer to make a flight) fill up the remaining two seats. This flight will be controlled remotely by a pilot in mission control.

Timing the (night) launch to coincide with Pandora crossing from the Western desert to the Western sea Ascender powers off the pad into a steep sub-orbital trajectory up to 680km. The pilot, who shall remain nameless lest his ego gain a gravitational field of its own, managed to get an intercept with Pandora on Ascenders initial sub-orbital trajectory.

KSC tracking screen showing Ascender V course intercept with Pandora. Normally confidential, this image was leaked by a pilot who has so far remained unidentified.

Ascender V seen here at sunrise coasting up towards its Ap. The HDIII upper stage retained some 130m/sec it is decided to retain this as early estimates put the intercept closing velocity with Pandora to be a little over 600m/sec, the higher thrust kick may be needed.

Matching velocity with Pandora was slightly hairy, but performed remarkably well. However we will not be pursuing this approach method again, performing a staging event during a 600+ m/sec manoeuvre whilst approaching a large and expensive facility does not make the management happy. Nor would any future crew like to witness a 4m long 2.5tonne spent stage pass within 500m of them at ~450m/sec.

With the RCS issues sorted out docking Ascender V proved to be quite a formality, and the three organic payloads EVA'd themselves across into Pandoras laboratory module. Billy-Bobdo stopping for a photo opportunity on the way. He seems to be enjoying himself, not bad for someone with a total of 45 minutes of space flight experience.

Orgun however made himself useful, during his EVA over from Ascender he successfully attached the 3 struts between Pandoras two separate modules which had been left by the previous crew.

Not to be out-done, Jedke and Billy-Bobdo fire up the laboratory and perform SCIENCE! ... 24 of it infact.

Contract complete, Science in Kerbin orbit, 42,006 Funds, 150 Reputation.

Mission cost 103,605 Funds.

 

Day 291, KSC

Spoiler

 

Trialling a new launch profile, Hector II will be launched with Pandora almost directly overhead. Climbing into a low 170km Ap Sub-orbital arc Hector is some 400km behind Pandora. Boosting this orbit up to 610x150km will allow Hector to intercept Pandora on the opposite side of the planet, both in daylight and at a much more civilised 280m/sec closing velocity.

The addition of a small volume of MMH/NTO to the main propellent tanks solves the RCS issues that had plagued the earlier Hector launches, this one is able to dock easily and transfer its 8tonne propellent payload (4,600 l LOx, 2,800 l Kerosene).

Once emptied, Hector is undocked and performs a destructive re-entry.

Mission cost, 99,908 Funds.

 

Day 293, KSC

Spoiler

 

Following the success of Verity VII at the Mun, a sister craft has been commissioned to collect on contracts for Minmus. The imaginatively named Verity VII-Mi is wheeled out to the launchpad atop its HoundDog I launcher. Awaiting the launch window to align with Minmus' orbital path Verity is launched along its 6 degree north trajectory.

Just like the Mun variant HDI is able to put Verity into a 250km orbit without using all of its own fuel stocks, 840m/sec remain in the core stage, this will provide the initial kick for the Minmus transfer burn.

Despite Verity containing sufficient Dv stocks, a slightly slower transfer is plotted, burning only 2,450m/sec on ejection (50m/sec less than the standard Minmus transfer) this results in a whopping 15 hour addition in transfer time. However, it is assumed this will also result in a much gentler capture burn being required.

The HoundDog I core stage is jettisoned during the burn, managing to attain 3.7Mm on its own where its retro system fires to bring it to a fiery end in Kerbins atmosphere.

The higher Pe (pre-burn) however resulted in a much shallower entry angle than normal (still ~-60km). The low mass (2,530kg, ²/₅ of this is engine) but large volume (2.25m x 12.3m) of an empty stage like this results in the small drag forces at high altitude having relatively large effects on the speed. Our engineers think that if minimal modifications are made to the core stage it may be possible to recover the entire stage, even from a fully orbital launch.

Verity massing in at only 720kg, inclusive of its 4 impact probes, still retains some 1,600m/sec Dv aboard as it takes the slow boat to Minmus.

Mission cost 58,369 Funds, 2x940 recovered from boosters.

 

 

Edited February 2, 2016 by Shania_L

[Shania_L]

Day 294, Minmus

Spoiler

 

With increasing interest in Minmus from numerous private companies a slew of lucrative contracts has become available (cancelling that strategy has really paid off)

The two twin Lunic III probes that were so profitable with their previous landings still retain a decent supply of fuel, so they are tasked with a complex series of hops to hit as many sites of interest as possible.

Lunic IIIa hops across to the Lesser Flats biome, so far untouched by landers, transmitting 184 science home it retains the Goo Canister report aboard.

Contract complete, Science from Minmus Surface. 136,280 Funds, 1 Science, 361 Reputation.

A 300Dv burn then takes the probe clear over the North pole to the first survey site, Experimental Engineering is paying good money for temperature scans from 5 closely separated positions.

Arriving at the fifth and final target, Lunic is down to 43Dv, unfortunately it is approaching the ground at 90m/sec.
Burning everything it had at the last second Lunic proves its resilience and proves that these probes were indeed designed to bounce, only the landing gear, engines, fuel tank and lower science instruments were destroyed .. and one solar panel, all things it can live without.

With probe core, batteries, antenna and upper science instruments still intact and attached to eachother Lunic IIIa is able to take the final reading and complete the contract.

Contract complete, Exceptional temperate scans from Minmus. 5x sites @ 40,717 Funds, 29 Science, 30 Reputation each. + Completion fee of 358,988 Funds, 58 Science, 250 Reputation. + Minmus Surface Science Contract 126,011 Funds, 1 Science, 441 Reputation.

39 Science remains in the Mystery Goo Canister if anyone wants to collect it in the future.

 

Day 295, Minmus

Spoiler

 

Initial results from surface surveys as well as resource scans from the orbiting Helmdar probe are fuelling companies to pump Funds into requesting more and more contracts in a hunt for high enough concentrations of usable materials.

Today as daylight reaches the second of the Lunic probes, Lunic IIIb, we have a set of co-ordinates for surface seismic studies funded by no less then the USI corp. An initial short hop onto the Great Flats for some pure science rewards, 184 transmitted home Goo retained. Then Lunic performs a longer hop right onto the day/night terminator, at these latitudes steep climbs need to be performed between readings to allow the batteries to charge in daylight.

5 Seismometer readings taken in close proximity fulfil the requirements resulting in another payday! 5x sites at 50,797 Funds, 29 Science, 21 Reputation each + completion reward of 379,853 Funds, 58 Science, 214 Reputation. And a Minmus surface Science contract to top it of for a final 137,590 Funds, 1 Science, 410 Reputation.

With 1,750Dv still in its tanks Lunic IIIb can be relied upon to perform 1 if not 2 more contracts depending upon initial travel distance.

 

Day 296, KSC

Spoiler

 

With Verity VII-Mi already the best part of 2 days ahead, Lunic IIIc is setup on the launchpad, Lunic carries the surface Bang-o-meter to complement Verities orbital Flash-o-meter, this means that ideally Lunic should have landed before Verity fires its probes ... but no-body thought to tell this to production.

HoundDog II lifts the modified Lunic lander into the night 6 degrees inclined south to match Minmus' trajectory as it passes over the KSC. Levelling out in a circular 150km orbit requiring only 65 m/sec correction burn. Using the same base design as the highly successful Lunic IIIa/b twin launch, Lunic IIIc carries only a single lander, but to carry not only the Bang-o-meter but a prototype resource collection system as well it has had to sacrifice all of the standard science equipment. The transfer stage has also had its capacity increased, gaining the ability for fully autonomous flight it has also been loaded with 600kg of lead plating to ensure is makes a very large bang when it becomes the hammer in the upcoming seismic test.

The HoundDog II upper stage retains some 1760Dv with is used to complete the majority of the Minmus transfer burn, the transfer stage itself completes to the traditional 2,500m/sec resulting in an 8D transfer hopefully catching, if not overtaking Verity on the way.

With only 50m/sec Dv separating the ejection burns for these two craft, Lunic has managed to shave nearly 2 days off of Verities lead. We shall see what this results in at the other end. They are expected to arrive at Minmus SOI within 1.5 hours of eachother.

Mission cost 61,938 Funds - 2x824 Recovered.

 

Day 299, Minmus

Lunic IIIb completes another round of Surface seismic surveys, this time for Reaction Systems. 5x 50,797 Funds, 29 Science, 21 Reputation. + 348,555 Funds, 58 Science, 250 Reputation completion reward.

With a little over 730Dv in the tank, completing another contract could be a close run thing, we shall see how the Lunic Luck lasts, these two probes have been gold mines earning far more than their initial launch costs.

Day 300, KSC

With a break in both build schedules and contract commitments (Lunic IIIb has fallen into the shadow of Minmus) Wernher is able to concentrate on some of the other issues that have been piling up ignored on his desk.

A surprisingly large number of these issues are from amateur space-gazers who have been claiming discoveries of odd fast moving planets which not only seem to ignore all the usual rules of being a planet, but that dont appear in the official listings of 'proper planets' either, The tracking station at KSC was unable to confirm any of these reports, however seeing as they are restricted to listening for the pings of transponders in Kerbal made craft and debris it is hardly surprising. One Kerbal in a dark set of overalls far too large for him, who had obviously drawn the short straw, approached Wernher with a proposition to upgrade the tracking station to be able to track objects that didnt want to be tracked, for 1.75 Million funds. If Wernher had been even 10 years younger he would have caught the other Kerb long before he made a hasty retreat out the office door.

There is no use tracking something if we cant find it though, he mused, and the KSC wasnt going to sit around in a field with a telescope on a stick, ohh no, this was a Space Centre, simply looking at space wasnt good enough. The guys in the Helmdar division could give the problem a ponder he decided, after all looking up was very similar to looking down ... wasnt it?

Day 304, Minmus

Verity VII-Mi arrives in Minmus SOI, 30m/sec burn to align Pe to 20km 35deg inclination, estimated 760m/sec capture burn to a 20x1000km orbit.

80 minutes later Lunic IIIc arrives in Minmus SOI, Where Verity had been efficient and gentle, Lunic was was, well... not. Burning over 100m/sec simply to correct an initial retrograde intercept, Lunics initial 50m/sec increased escape burn had become a 500m/sec velocity advantage at the SOI boundary, with Lunic also requiring a much lower orbit to deploy its lander the capture burn was looking to be nearly twice that of Verity, 1,200m/sec. .... Lunics transfer stage has 870Dv aboard ... typical!

 

// At this point game related issues raised their ugly heads, I am still trying to untangle the mess. So far my game has been pretty stable and well behaved, karma caught up to me tonight.

Edited February 7, 2016 by Shania_L

[Shania_L]

So yeah, an update to the update. I had a glitch with the contract system, my entire contract history and current accepted contracts have all been wiped out. The best part was the game didnt even crash or have the good grace to inform me that this had happened .... I continued playing and as a very careful and conscientious player always worried by the possibility of crashes .. I have repeatedly overwritten my quicksave file ... meaning I do not exactly know when the issue happened or have a recent revert point, my backups backup is over a month old.

So I have patched up as best I could, accepting all the contracts that seemed pretty similar to those I had before, and deducting the payments from my budget (filed on a T-12 temporal disturbance clause, hence fully tax deductable). Scanning and remote-tech contracts are going to take time to re-initiate though.. if they do ever.

In other news, I completely missed last weeks anniversary, this thread is 1 year (and a week) old, so that means in 371 Earth days I have managed to play 304 Kerbal days ... which are 4 times shorter .... I could have played this career without using time acceleration and been further ahead than I actually am

 

[Cydonian Monk]

The contract resets are weird. While I was chasing another bug I had a message flash across the Alt-F2-log that read something like "Contract system out of date; all contracts deleted." Checked my list of active contracts after that and nothing had changed, so no clue what the message was about. I've certainly lost all contracts in the past, though that now occurs with less frequency than it once did. It's just something the contracts seem to have always done, even way back when they were still a mod. No warning, just Zap! and they're gone.

Congrats on reaching the year+week mark! 

[CatastrophicFailure]

Parts scattered all over the surface, mission: complete success. Yup, that's doing it right all right. 

 

Pity about the contracts tho. Maybe chalk it up to a change of Administration? At least they didn't demand you scrap everything & start all over to go chasing asteroids. 

[Shania_L]

On 02/02/2016 at 8:56 PM, Cydonian Monk said:

The contract resets are weird. While I was chasing another bug I had a message flash across the Alt-F2-log that read something like "Contract system out of date; all contracts deleted." Checked my list of active contracts after that and nothing had changed, so no clue what the message was about. I've certainly lost all contracts in the past, though that now occurs with less frequency than it once did. It's just something the contracts seem to have always done, even way back when they were still a mod. No warning, just Zap! and they're gone.

Congrats on reaching the year+week mark! 

Well, I suppose that is good and bad news, I had thought it was related to the monkeying about I had been doing to try and get re-textured fairings into my game ... at least this way I have an alibi that it wasnt my fault \o/

On 03/02/2016 at 4:07 AM, CatastrophicFailure said:

Parts scattered all over the surface, mission: complete success. Yup, that's doing it right all right. 

 

Pity about the contracts tho. Maybe chalk it up to a change of Administration? At least they didn't demand you scrap everything & start all over to go chasing asteroids. 

Exactly! the engines, fuel tanks and landing gear wern't needed anymore, so its err, more efficient? maybe? Depending on what I find it may not be me chasing the asteroids!!

===================================================================================================================

Day 403, Minmus (cont)

Spoiler

 

We left off last time with Lunic IIIc arriving in Minmus SOI like the proverbial flying rat from a hot place, seemingly determined to barrel straight through and continue into the depths of space.
With 870Dv in its tanks mission planners had estimated that a Pe burn to 'slightly elliptical' (technical term) would require 1,200Dv. A cunning plan was required.

The transfer stage was always intended to become the hammer for Lunics seismic sensors, the only issue was that we need to get Lunic landed before the impact event. So technically, if we can get Lunic on the surface then we wont actually need to capture the transfer stage into orbit. Lunic burns 3/4 of its fuel supply at 1Mm above Minmus, this drops the approach velocity to more manageable speeds, decoupling the lander, Lunics transfer stage then burns all of its remaining fuel to slow down more and put its trajectory onto a collision course.

Breaking every rule in the landing handbook, Lunic III turns head down and burns towards Minmus trying to get as much lead over its transfer stage as possible. With 2,000m/sec aboard the lander isnt short on Dv, it is however restricted to 4KN thrust.

Initial estimates put Lunics impact time at 4 minutes, the transfer stage at 9 minutes, this will be all the time it has to slow down and land before the transfer stage impacts the surface.

Performing a max thrust suicide burn (for the best part of 50 seconds) Lunic manages to kill its vertical velocity and set down onto the surface, looking up immediately after touchdown we see the transfer stage ... only 55km behind and approaching at 680m/sec. (You could do the maths yourself, but that is 81 seconds)

It came as a bit of a disappointment that for some reason there was no single impact event, instead Lunics seismometer recorded a series of shocks peaking at 258MJ, which translated into 109 science.
Theoretically the peak force should have been 293MJ, had the entire 1,268kg probe hit at its last observed velocity of 680m/sec.

(This was the point whereby I realised my contracts were missing ... this should have been a payday)

After transmitting its recordings home, Lunic III initiated its secondary mission, detailed analysis of subsurface resource concentrations.

A micro drilling system has been developed by the USI corp, in addition to a Karbonite resource scanner the concentration of usable material in a specific location can be determined.

With surface concentrations at 3.63% this is hardly a hotspot, this single small drill is capable of harvesting a grand total of 0.0036 litres per second. Even though this is low, it is not disastrous satellite observations have recorded locations with double this concentration, it seems to be linked to surface inclination the more steeply inclined a location then the higher the Karbonite concentration.
With 940Dv remaining in its tanks, Lunic III can check at least a few other locations in search of riches.

 

Day 304, Minmus (yes more)

Spoiler

 

With communication once more restored with the private sector, re-affirmation of contracts has provided the KSC with an excuse to put Verity VII into action. Verity VII carries an orbital spectrometer, having arrived only an hour or so before Lunic is was well out of LoS when the transfer stage impacted the surface so it was incapable of observing the resultant plume. Fortunately Verity can make its own plumes.

Deploying the first of its 4 impact probes as it climbs away from Minmus on its highly elliptical orbit Verity will hang in the sky long enough to witness the impact.

The probes are incredibly simple, little more than a solid motor designed to aim at the nearest centre of mass and hit it as fast as possible.

Some say, that the motor and associated plume are too big, others simply enjoy the explosion. (Verity VII visible on far right of image)

Making full use of the squared term in the KE equation, the 42kg probe impacts Minmus' lowlands at 2,614m/sec, resulting in a 147MJ energy release.

50 Science from Spectrometer readings.
Contract complete, Spectrometer readings from Minmus. 224,166 Funds, 12 Science, 6 Reputation.

40 Science from Lunic IIIc Seismometer readings.
Contract complete, Seismometer readings from Minmus >5.8MJ. 240,070 Funds, 12 Science, 6 Reputation.

Mission costs, Verity VII-Mi - 58,369 - 940x2
                       Lunic IIIc      - 61,938 - 824x2

With Verity capable of 3 more impacts and Lunic there to record it, further income is possible.

 

Day 306, KSC

Spoiler

 

Following a fairly standard night launch of HoundDog III, a new deadweight payload record has been set. After recommendations (some say moaning) from the crew aboard Pandora, a laboratory extension has been constructed. With the necessary adaptors and mating parts it weighs in at some 11,200kg, it needs to be delivered to a very specific point in a 500km orbit to meet and then dock to the orbiting station, which is cutting the Dv budget of even a HDIII to the wire.

Having removed all the thrust restrictions from HoundDog IIIs solid boosters, the initial phase of launch is still slow. At solid motor cutoff, TtW ratio drops below 1, the mission only being saved by the momentum and fuel burn rate managing to bring this back up before too much speed is lost.

Climbing into a 144x98 km orbit an easy 145m/sec burn is plotted to catch Pandora on the opposite side of Kerbin, launching with Pandora almost exactly over the KSC seems the best point to get easy intercepts.

Lab extension module seen here with HDIII upper stage on the climb up to 500km intercept. Temporary control and power module attached to lab module, this provides control for docking after de-couple from the booster stage, RCS units on lab will be removed after docking to reduce clutter (and part count of station)

A gentle matching burn of 125m/sec is performed leaving HDIII with 105Dv aboard, once the lab is undocked this will be plenty to de-orbit itself.

The lab is remotely flown by Orgun from aboard Pandora station, once it is secured in position he goes EVA and relocates the RCS units from the lab to the detachable probe section.

Pumping 2/3s of the remaining fuel into Pandoras own stocks, the probe module is de-coupled and commanded to burn for suicidal re-entry.

Billy-Bobdo is the first to pop into the new lab in hunt of snacks or any other goodies the KSC may have sent up. He is not so lucky, the lab doesnt contain anything not required structurally or functionally, the 12 unit lifesupport canisters are all empty in efforts to slim down the mass as much as possible. On the other hand though, the 3 Kerbals now have enough living space for 11, so each of them pick a different module and get the first un-interupted nights sleep any of them have had since launch.

Mission cost 96,126 Funds.

 

 

Edited February 14, 2016 by Shania_L

[Ten Key]

21 hours ago, Shania_L said:

Initial estimates put Lunics impact time at 4 minutes, the transfer stage at 9 minutes, this will be all the time it has to slow down and land before the transfer stage impacts the surface.

Performing a max thrust suicide burn (for the best part of 50 seconds) Lunic manages to kill its vertical velocity and set down onto the surface, looking up immediately after touchdown we see the transfer stage ... only 55km behind and approaching at 680m/sec. (You could do the maths yourself, but that is 81 seconds)

Now see, if I had tried that, the transfer stage would have landed on the probe. 

[Shania_L]

On 08/02/2016 at 8:42 PM, Ten Key said:

Now see, if I had tried that, the transfer stage would have landed on the probe. 

I made sure to include a decent helping of sideways into the transfer stages final burn, it ended up falling at least 20km away from the lander.

Day 309, KSC

Spoiler

 

Breathing new life into the venerable HoundDog I launcher, today sees the rollout of the Ic version.

In an attempt to create a fully reusable launch vehicle, the single stage (plus boosters) of the HoundDog I was the obvious first choice. The two pairs of solid boosters are already fully recoverable and on 95% of launches they are successfully recovered, however applying the same system to the core stage is a much more involved process.

The recent launch of Verity VII showed that the HoundDog Ib was capable of putting not only a decent sized (~3 tonnes) payload into LKO but also the entire core stage. A fully orbital trajectory although considerably faster than sub-orbital (approx 6,000m/sec @ 150km) does result in a much more controlled and therefore shallower re-entry profile.

Over the last 16 days since Verities launch, engineers at KSC have been working in simulations on the modifications that would enable the entire core stage to be brought back ... gently.

Todays launch of a Hector III Lifesupport resupply mission is going to be the test launch of this new system.

 

As you can see the basic profile of HoundDog is unchanged, there are a few major differences though, most noticeably in the single Skipper main engine has been replaced by a cluster of 7 Galaxy VR-2 nozzles, burning the same combination of KeroLox. This change is mainly for later in flight the cluster has a lower mass than the skipper and thus provides a CoM further forwards during re-entry, also nearing main engine cut-off a skipper produces excessive thrust, with the Ic reduced payload capacity this just becomes worse. (Trial flights have peaked at 12G).

This reduction in thrust also required the solid motors to be beefed up from 0.5m to 0.6m.

Launching into a 160km Ap sub-orbital arc, an 810m/sec burn is required to complete to 160x512 to intercept with Pandora half an orbit later. HoundDog finally burns out at 138x237km, Hector is released to complete the burn on its internal fuel.

Hector III is a very simple lightweight craft designed for nothing other than delivering 80 days of lifesupport to Pandora, weighing in at ~1.3tonnes it is just about the max payload for a Ic.

Half an orbit later Hector successfully meets up with and docks to Pandora.

Meanwhile

Another addition to the Ic is a set of radially mounted retrograde hypergolic motors, these are used to lower HoundDogs Pe to 30km somewhere close to KSC. (I am notoriously bad at aiming re-entry profiles).

A nose mounted 1.25m heatshield will be used to protect the delicate booster as it passes through the upper atmosphere, very little ablative however is required, this is probably due to the large size and relative low mass experiencing significant acceleration whilst still at high altitude before serious heat buildup can occur.
In an attempt to keep the heatshield pointing in the correct direction 2 pairs of airbrakes have been installed around the tail to try and pull the centre of lift as far back as possible, this is aided by beefed up reaction wheels .. and associated battery capacity. To top it all off lead ballast plating is installed in the fairing base.

They say that launching a rocket is like trying to balance a broom on the palm of your hand, well, HoundDog Ic's re-entry was like trying to balance a snake on the palm of your hand ... one that would take every possible opportunity it got to spin about and bite your face off.

Despite all that, and managing to rip off both of its drogue chutes the (humongous) main chutes opened and held,

Right up to the point where I tried to jettison the heatshield, and it decided to cut the chute as well ....

What little pieces survived the impact with the desert (yup totally missed the KSC too) were recovered for 0 Funds ... huh?

 

Later on the same Day (309), Pandora Station

Spoiler

 

Orgun makes another short space walk, retrieving two struts brought up by the Hector supply ship he attaches them to the new lab module locking it securely in place.

Hector is subsequently un-docked and destructively de-orbited.

Mission cost 48,164 Funds - 2x 940 recovered from boosters.

We shall have to attempt this again, the system works even if it is difficult to control.

 

Day 310, KSC

Spoiler

 

The Helmdar orbital observation division has responded to Wernhers request for an upwards looking telescope (rather than the usual downwards type) with something of a monster. Helmdar IV will require a HoundDog III lifter, not only for its bulk, but for its intended orbit, circular 30Mm.

With private corporations financing this launch, liftoff occurred at slightly after midnight to hit the correct orbital inclination. Launching 8 degrees north Helmdar IV is initially dropped into a 200km orbit, before a 1920m/sec burn up to its 30Mm Ap. With Helmdar IV being well below a HDIII payload rating (2,900kg) the upperstage has plenty of Dv for orbital manoeuvring.

4.5 hours later at 30Mm, a further 1195m/sec is burned to circularise.

Contract complete, Satellite in specific orbit. 136,362 Funds, 5 Science, 41 Reputation.

Decoupling the HDIII upper stage and using its remaining fuel and retros for a de-orbit burn it seems we pushed it a little too far, running dry whilst still in a 5,900 x 23,700km orbit. It carries not only an antenna + probe but also basic power generation as until deployed at altitude Helmdar was completely inert. Designated as debris.

Helmdar IV however can now decouple its protective fairings,

and deploy its wings, to power the highly sensitive instruments which will scan the sky for threatening or lucrative "not-planets".

Helmdar retains some 1,450Dv in its onboard stocks.

Mission cost 131,251 Funds 0 recovery.

Cost fully covered by contract payment.

 

Day 312, KSC

Spoiler

 

Lemlie, Dersey and Bartlorf Kerman find that their recruitment into the science division includes a rather intimidating first day on the job, as they are secured into the capsule of an Ascender V bound for Pandora.

The 3 rookies just have to sit there as little more than payload whilst the remote controlled craft follows a standard ascent profile to the orbiting station.

Improvements in trajectory and launch timings have reduced the transfer from 150km to 500km intercept to a 122m/sec and 140m/sec matching burn. The HDIII upper stage runs dry during the final burn and is successfully de-orbited on its retros.

Who would have thought parking space would become a problem in orbit? With a crew of 6 Pandora now requires two Ascender V craft permanently docked as escape vehicles, leaving only a single standard size port open for crew transfer.

The other issue being that with 6 Kerbals munching through the snack supply the lifesupport will only sustain them for 34 days, meaning we either get to test Hector III much more often, or we are going to have to increase storage.

Mission cost, 103,605 Funds.

 

 

Edited February 24, 2016 by Shania_L

[CatastrophicFailure]

7 hours ago, Shania_L said:

What little pieces survived the impact with the desert (yup totally missed the KSC too) were recovered for 0 Funds ... huh?

Quote

[Sand.] It's coarse and rough and irritating, and it gets everywhere!

 

7 hours ago, Shania_L said:

 

Totally digging the mellow sciency blue there. 

Edited February 14, 2016 by CatastrophicFailure

[Norcalplanner]

I really enjoyed reading through this.  Have some rep.

One thing I have to ask, though - is the struggle for funds intentional?  KCT uses the contract penalties percentage as a modifier for facilities upgrade costs.  By choosing to go with 200% penalties, you're making all your upgrades cost twice as much.  If that's intentional, and you enjoy the challenge, then have at it.  But on the off chance that it's unintentional, consider reducing the fund penalties percentage to bring down the upgrade costs.

[Shania_L]

On 14/02/2016 at 10:34 PM, CatastrophicFailure said:

Totally digging the mellow sciency blue there. 

Because what else would you want inside a telescope, but a bright light source?

1 hour ago, Norcalplanner said:

KCT uses the contract penalties percentage as a modifier for facilities upgrade costs

I was unaware of this, is this a recent development, or one that would exist in an older 0.90 version of KCT as I am using? IIRC the base costs of structures were reduced coming into 1.0.x, I had always assumed that was why my costs were greater than those encountered in a stock install.

In terms of effect on my career, none of the prices has really caused me trouble except for the R&D lab, and even that to an extent has only caused me to hold at mid game, I currently have 4 of the 6.3 million I need to upgrade it.

[Norcalplanner]

1 hour ago, Shania_L said:

Because what else would you want inside a telescope, but a bright light source?

I was unaware of this, is this a recent development, or one that would exist in an older 0.90 version of KCT as I am using? IIRC the base costs of structures were reduced coming into 1.0.x, I had always assumed that was why my costs were greater than those encountered in a stock install.

In terms of effect on my career, none of the prices has really caused me trouble except for the R&D lab, and even that to an extent has only caused me to hold at mid game, I currently have 4 of the 6.3 million I need to upgrade it.

I think it's been doing this for quite a while, but I wasn't able to find anything definitive just now on the KCT thread.  I remember some other mods (such as SETI) specifically recommending leaving the funds penalty at 100% for just this reason.

[Shania_L]

Yup, following investigation, the funds penalty is boosting the cost of building upgrades ... but at this stage of the game once I have paid for this R&D upgrade all the rest are cheap in comparison so there isnt really any point in fudging the persistence file to change it. But I will remember for next time !!

 

Day 312, KSC (Missed from previous report)

Spoiler

 

With initial data and results coming in from the Helmdar IV orbital telescope, we now need a way of tracking these new objects.
Tracking station upgraded, 1.75Million Funds, unowned objects can now be tracked.

And not before too long either, An object has been detected within Kerbins own SOI, on a highly inclined and elliptical orbit it appears to have been captured but at Ap it is very close to escape velocity.

Due to legal issues regarding the term 'Not Planets', it has been decided to name this object 'Potentially Hazardous Asteroid GFW-596', because that is so much easier to remember

 

Day 316, KSC

Spoiler

 

Once it was realised that this new object may very well only pass by Kerbin once before disappearing back into deep space and that all other Asteroids seem to form stable orbits around Kerbol, a maximum effort drive was made to get a probe out to it before it left for good.

To this end the Nyx I probe has been cobbled together and setup on the launchpad within the 5 day window between detection and the asteroids flyby. This tight window restricted us to a very simple probe, the production line assembly rate of the HoundDog Ib booster would allow us to meet the deadline but only with a 3 tonne max mass in LKO. Intercepting the asteroid would require something of the order of a 2,500m/sec burn so any probe would be mostly fuel anyway.

Nyx I uses the stretched version of HoundDog I, with the hypergolic LV-909 upper stage to increase payload Dv at the expense of payload mass.

A late night launch is unavoidable due to the approach direction and highly inclined 58 degree orbit. We have really cut the timings close on this one, achieving full orbit isnt possible before the asteroid will have passed us by, so Nyx is boosted up towards a sub-orbital 370Km Ap whilst the 4,100m/sec intercept burn is plotted and executed.

The upper stage runs dry during the burn leaving Nyx to complete the final 1450m/sec on its internal stocks (it packs 5,530Dv when full), the upper stage coasts to its 5Mm Ap where it fires its retros and successfully de-orbits.

 

Day 317, High Kerbin Orbit

Spoiler

 

At 40Mm, a  little over 4 hours after escaping LKO, asteroid GFW-596 is rapidly catching up to Nyx I.

Nyx is powered by a single AIES hypergolic motor putting out 21KN, quite powerful for its ~1 tonne mass but the TtW ratio is needed to perform the escape burn in a sufficiently short time. Other than fuel stocks for the motor Nyx carries fixed position solar panels with a healthy battery stock, a 12Mm omni antenna and a 320Mm dish to allow it to contact KSC at any point in the asteroids predicted path. Nyx' very basic science payload is restricted to a single set of SR sensors, a magnetometer, a composition analyser and a thermometer, however the most important item carried is the "Cats Paw" 0.625m grabber, which will hopefully allow Nyx to hitch a ride.

A perfectly timed 355m/sec burn reduces Nyx' relative velocity with GFW-596 to practically nothing, at this point we realise that RCS thrusters would be useful to allow Nyx to move around the asteroid without needing to flip end over end all the time, fortunately it has a powerful enough reaction wheel to allow this.
The thermometer, SR sensors and probe report apparently show no signs of having detected an asteroid and no science is forthcoming, only the Magnetometer produces 30 Sci(near) and 45 Sci(attached) which is transmitted home. Nyx then arms its Cats Paw and makes a running charge at the asteroid .....

Sinking the harpoons deep into the rock Nyx reports a secure hold. Finally some data is forthcoming from the composition analyser, GFW-596 is identified as an S-type asteroid massing some 133 tonnes of which roughly 2/3 is usable resources a mix of Karbonite, Argon and Water.

Before 'docking' Nyx had 3,490Dv, with GFW-596 .... now renamed as 'Moros' attached it has only 15m/sec. In order to ensure that Moros does not escape into deep space this 15m/sec will be put to good use in 11D time to reduce the Ap to below Minmus (and some inclination).

Mission cost 52,478 Funds - 2x944 recovery

 

Day 317, KSC

Spoiler

 

With another small/lightweight structural component headed for Pandora it was decided that another attempt was to be made with the HoundDog Ic. Modifications had been made to the modifications, bits had been discarded ideas had been rehashed and a more streamlined result ended up sat on the launchpad.

The easiest changes to spot are the deletions of the triple radial hypergolic "retro motors", these have been replaced by isolating a small fuel supply from the main engines and simply having to flip the ship around. The last flight of the Ic was plagued by what we shall call "directional indecisiveness" both on ascent and decent, it is hoped that removing the triple motors and relocating the single radial parachute to a cone chute in the fairing structure a cleaner and less 'fighty' flight can be achieved. One issue of relocating the chute though is that the booster will now descend and land on its end rather than its side as before, this has necessitated the addition of 4 landing legs around the base. The fact that the drogue and main chutes are at opposite ends of the craft ... will probably sort itself out in due course.

Just about managing to drag itself off the pad, (Pad TtW 1.17) HDIc once again crawls its way into orbit, TtW ratio at solid booster burnout 0.97, before finally breaking the sound barrier at 18,300m and from there on it manages to pick up enough speed to make orbit. Boosting up to 161Km before "Circularising" to 97x529km the payload is jettisoned.

The payload, "Pandora Lab adaptor" performs an 85m/sec adjustment to ensure an intercept with Pandora occurs, remaining fuel and the "secret stash" leave HDIc with 150Dv to pick its time and place of de-orbiting.

Burning 200m/sec to cancel relative speeds the lab adaptor intercepts Pandora 2/3 of an orbit later with plenty of fuel remaining an easy docking is performed onto the end of the lab extension. The lab adaptor provides 3 new Jr docking ports (2 extended, one flush) but the part the crew have been waiting for is the new high bandwidth communications dish allowing them to stream high definition TV shows... err research materials direct to the station whenever they need it!

330 litres of unneeded NTO are transferred to the stations stocks and the command/control/propulsion module is separated revealing a single standard docking port. The released module then performs a destructive re-entry.

Meanwhile

The HoundDog Ic core stage burns ~140Dv to drop its orbit to 646x21km somewhere in the vicinity of KSC. Deploying its airbrakes and holding +5 degrees to surface prograde to try and generate some lift 2.7tonnes of mostly empty fuel tanks enter the atmosphere.

Unlike a spaceplane, HoundDog is able to flip through 4 rotational orientations in order to spread the heating effects to the unprotected radial items at the tail preventing any of them from exploding. The heatshield contains no ablative, but even without its temperature never exceeds 1,200 degrees, the low density craft creates enough drag to slow down at high enough altitude to prevent significant heat buildup.

Once the heating phase is done, most of the velocity is gone and the heatshield can be discarded before the (tail mounted) drogue chutes open at 14km .... this is when we realise something might be a little wrong ... did we remember to carry the 3 when calculating the parachute size?

Fortunately the (nose mounted) main chute opens at 7.5km (the drogue chutes are cut at 7km) the air brakes are retracted as the landing gear extends and just as the main chute fully opens at 700m the entire ship flips around and settles onto the ground ... on its feet!

In the desert .. the best part of 1000km away from KSC, but its an improvement over the last flight the ship is in one piece and was much happier flying straight both up and down.

Mission cost 47,448 Funds. - 2x944(boosters) - 16,665(core stage) = 28,895 Funds.
Despite the map showing the landing site being around 1000km from KSC (about as far West as you can go on the KSC continent) the recovery screen only credited me a 54% recovery and quoted 6,031km from KSC ... ?

 

 

Edited March 6, 2016 by Shania_L

[CatastrophicFailure]

5 hours ago, Shania_L said:

Despite the map showing the landing site being around 1000km from KSC (about as far West as you can go on the KSC continent) the recovery screen only credited me a 54% recovery and quoted 6,031km from KSC

Sounds legit. If my math is right (and it's probably not), the 6.4x circumference of Kerbin is something like 24k km. Eyeballing it on the map, 6k semis pretty close. 

 

Also, where's the kewt lil klaw from??

[Shania_L]

14 hours ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

Also, where's the kewt lil klaw from??

The claw is from RoverDudes Advanced Mining Technologies mod.

However in looking for this link, it looks like it isnt being kept up to date so I cant promise the part will work in later KSP versions.