Kerbal Space Agency - An AAR

[Spike88]

With KSP .18 Officially out I've decided to do an AAR in KSP kind of retracing the steps of the space race and working my way into manned missions to Duna and beyond.

As I progress through certain milestones I'll do write ups and pictures.

First up....


Mission Kutnik-1:*

The Kutnik-1 and it's booster sit on the launchpad seconds before launch


Shortly after the side boosters are expelled(sorry I meant to get a picture of them, but I forgot)


The upper stage of the Rocket, 21 seconds before the burn to circularize the orbit(note that Sputnik and Kutnik do not have fully circular orbits, but I can't think of another word for bring up my Periapsis so that the probe doesn't go into the brink early)


A shot before the last power stage is ejected back into the atmosphere, I've fully extended the antennae


Ejection of the lower stage. Note the awesome spiral I have going on with the sepatrons


Final shot of Kutnik-1

I've set her orbit up so that she'll briefly dip into the atmosphere(at 65KM) which will slowly slow her down. As there is no Atmospheric decay above 70km(that I know of), this dipping into the orbit should in theory slow it down over time until it comes crashing back into Kerbin.


Next up, putting a Kerbal into space!


*I know Kutnik is a lame name, I just couldn't think of anything else.

[Cybermat47]

Nice!

[Arclight]

Originally Posted by Spike88

*I know Kutnik is a lame name, I just couldn't think of anything else.

Jebediah Kerman Ultra Space Probe 3000 Unlimited, a.k.a. JKUSP-3kU

[Lionclaw]

Originally Posted by Spike88

With KSP .18 Officially out I've decided to do an AAR in KSP kind of retracing the steps of the space race and working my way into manned missions to Duna and beyond.


Next up, putting a Kerbal into space!


*I know Kutnik is a lame name, I just couldn't think of anything else.

Kotsov perhaps for the first manned mission? Vostok reversed.


I like the launcher you made for Kutnik, resembles the R-7 Semjorka.


Some links for those who are interested.
http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/r7.htm

http://www.astronautix.com/fam/r7.htm

[Spike88]

Originally Posted by Lionclaw

-snip-

Upon creating the R7-Semjorka, I realized that I would really like some sort of nosecone to put on the booster rockets to mimic the way they meet up with the main body.

In hindsight, Kostov would've been a great name to go with, but alas I derived from Earth history and started making up my own rocket names/designs.

I've come up with my own naming formula It will be KR-# Name #.
KR-# is the Kerbal Research number for the rocket. Examples are KR-1, KR-5,etc. I may use KP-# for unmanned prototype rockets. Space fitting, I may add MK# or M# to denote Minor versions of the same rocket. For example, if I need to change a small aspect of the rocket, and do not need to start with a fresh rocket.

Name is the name I assign to the rocket. I'm kind of partial to Greek/Roman God names, but I may kerbalize some of the names. In the case of long names, I may Abbreviate.

# will be the flight number for this kind of rocket. Will start with 1 and work it's way up.


Now back to the main show:

Mission Artemis 1

The KR-1 Artemis 1 sits on the launchpad and conducts a solar panel check before launch. Jebediah is thrilled to be the first Kerbal in space.
I was mostly testing to see if action groups worked correctly.


And what's KSP without failures.

Let's try this again...

Ignition of engines


Full thrust


Kouston, we have lift-off.
The tab on the right is the Graphrotron mod. It takes all the data the new sensors give out, and puts it into a graph. So you can measure how different aspects change as time goes by.


Ejecting the first stage


Gravity turn


Ejection of the second stage


Circularizing the orbit. Jebediah Kerman is now the first Kerbal in space.


And due to a malfunction the third stage is ejected prematurely. The orbit hasn't had a chance to circularize, so Jeb is coming home early.


Shortly after firing the separatrons to slow down, Jeb turns the space craft retrograde to increase drag for aerobraking. While he didn't get to orbit Kerbin this time, he's excited to go up again.


Chute deployed




Welcome home Jebediah.

[Gargamel]

Did the boosters launch but not the main rocket in the failure? I love the kerbals facials expressions.

[Spike88]

Originally Posted by Gargamel

Did the boosters launch but not the main rocket in the failure? I love the kerbals facials expressions.

The failure was actually because I had the staging set up incorrectly. The ship was set free from the launch pad before the engines had ignited. So they fell into the pad. If I had activated the engine stage fast enough, it could've been avoided, but I just changed it so the engines fire and then the pad lets go.

Although in one of the Kutnik preparation launches I set the boosters to decouple at the same time the launch stands let go, so the boosters flew straight into the main body of the rocket.

Mission Artemis 2:
I have updated the rocket to the KR-1B version. Has increased RCS thrusters to make gravity turn easier(and less likely to spin out of control).

I've also changed the naming conventions slightly. Instead of adding MK to the name, I'll donate minor variations in the rockets using the Alphabet. Starting with A and working through Z. If I ever get to the point where I need to go past Z(I highly doubt it), I'll start again at ZA and working my way through ZZ.

Anyways, onto Artemis 2.

Nice shot of Mun coming over the horizon.


Deploying the solar panels in orbit

Now that I'm in orbit, I'd like to do an EVA, however the sun is setting, so I'll continue to orbit Kerbin until sunrise.


Sunrise!


First Kerbal to leave the confines of a Space ship(although he's the only Kerbal to be in a space ship, but who cares).





Trying to re-board the vessel, Jedediah is accidentally launched into space. But is able to return to the pod.


Safe and sound, time to prepare for re-entry. However as the space center is hours away from Sun down, I continue to orbit the planet until sunrise.


Punching in the de-orbit burn into the computer.


Retracting solar panels for re-entry(although they're going to be lost when the pod detaches from the ship)


Initiating burn


...And running out of fuel early


Using the retro rockets on the pod to further slow down


After a smooth re-entry, we come down 34KM from the Space Center. A little far out, but at least we made it safely.

It wasn't until I jettisoned the last stage that I realized I forgot to get instrument readings from the Graphrotron. Ah well.

Next up on the Agenda:
Sending Probes to Mun, Minimus, Eve, and Duna.
Practicing Orbital Docking in Preperation for a manned mission to Mun.
Launching various satellites into the orbit of Kerbin.


I'm thinking of installing the GPS mod that let's you create a GPS system by naming your ships with the GPS prefix. I'm also thinking of installing the ISA mapping mod once it's updated to .18 and flying satellites around the planet to take pictures.

[RedMenace]

Hey Spike, how'd you get your antennas on your satellite that far up and still face backwards? I can only place them on the southern hemisphere of the sat and get them to face that way.

[Spike88]

Originally Posted by RedMenace

Hey Spike, how'd you get your antennas on your satellite that far up and still face backwards? I can only place them on the southern hemisphere of the sat and get them to face that way.

If you hold shift while hitting the WASDQE keys, you can rotate your parts in increments.

[RedMenace]

Originally Posted by Spike88

If you hold shift while hitting the WASDQE keys, you can rotate your parts in increments.

Ah, thanks. I was wondering what "secret" controls the ship-builder has.

[Spike88]

After much Trials and tribulation, Probius 1 makes it into a Munar Orbit.

Probius 2 and 3 are scheduled to launch with Minimus and Eve targets.

[Spike88]

Probius 2 in an Orbit around Minimus. Shortly after transmitting this photo, the probe spontaneously combusted. We have no clue why(I accidentally hit End Flight).

[Spike88]

Probius 3 reaches it's orbit around Eve. The journey took 340-ish days(just under a year) and a lot of guess work. I could've probably cut the time in half had I realized the best way to work the flight planning system. As the satellite was pretty much on it's own propulsion around the time it encountered Eve, I had to Aerobrake.

After a burn to mostly circularize the orbit, the tanks were just about empty(could probably fine tune the orbit a tad more before running out, but what's the point?)

[AriesRCN]

awsome posts, i have barely managed to land a probe on the mun. Pressed the wrong button once and sent that lander nearly back into space.

never made it to eve yet

[Spike88]

Escape Tower Prototype -



A simple push of the abort button launches the capsule in the air away from the rocket.


Deploying the chutes


Mission Kermini Prototype -
In preparation for a Munar landing, the Kerbols are going to practice docking in space. Kermini 1 is going to go into orbit first and Kermini 2 will try to rendezvous with it. First however, we have to work out the proper launch vehicle.

KR-3A Kermini Prototype 1 sits on the launch pad seconds before launch.




The ship ran out of fuel before completely circularizing it's orbit.


The drogue shoots slowing the ship down in the atmosphere.

While this mission did not succeed in Orbiting Kerbin, it's given us some insight into the alterations we can make to the rocket design to better meet our goal.