Saturday, November 2, 2013

Mission 57 - Preparing to return to Minmus

Mission 57

Moon Princess 7
Description: An autonomous rover equipped with scientific equipment. It also contains two seats for Kerbals.
Mass at launch: 1787 kg (4156 kg with upper stage)


Launch vehicle: Symphony-5k Type-01a

Mission objective: Land on Minmus.



The rover, attached to its upper stage


Trans-Minmus Injection burn


Arrival at Minmus


In Minmus orbit


Flying near a plateau


After de-orbiting


Landed on Minmus


The upper stage then detached and flew off (and crashed).


Rover next to some rocks



Landing site


Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Mission 55 + 56 - New crew for Futurelab

(Nebula-4 and 5 were undocked from Futurelab and safely returned to Kerbin.)




Mission 55

Reusable Crew Vehicle 02 "Mirrored Sound" | RCV Flight 02
Mass at launch: 5140 kg

Launch vehicle: Symphony-5k Type-01a

Mission objective: Rendezvous and dock with Futurelab.

Crew: Lemfrid, Seezer, Harsey, Hermy, and Kelvan Kerman



Viewing the launch from the pilot's seat


The retrofitted Symphony-5k performs a powered landing back onto the launch pad.



RCV-02 rendezvous/docking with Futurelab




Mission 56

Reusable Crew Vehicle 03 "Circulating Sound" | RCV Flight 03


Crew: Newmin, Aldely, Patwin, Wilke, and Milsted Kerman



Lazor Docking Cam + Docking Port Alignment Indicator



Futurelab is now home to 10 Kerbals.


Saturday, October 26, 2013

Mission 54 - Moho lander

Mission 54

Mouhou Project 3
Description: A probe designed to land on Moho.
Mass at launch: 650 kg (7352 kg with upper stage)


Launch vehicle: Symphony-10k Type-01
(reusable SSTO booster with 10000 kg payload capacity)

Mission objective: Land on Moho.

The Symphony-10k launch vehicle is propelled by nine aerospike engines.



Mouhou Project 3 and its upper stage, separated from the launcher



It was realized that a powered descent using MechJeb's landing autopilot only costed about 350 m/s in delta-v. So, that landing method was used instead of the parachutes (which added more mass to the vehicle and weren't as effective at slowing the craft before it reached the ground).







Upper stage performing trans-Moho injection



Arrival at Moho



Initial orbit



At apoapsis



Lander in circularized orbit



De-orbit burn



Falling towards the surface



Landed on Moho





Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Mission 53 - 5-Kerbal reusable spacecraft

Mission 53

Reusable Crew Vehicle 01 "First Sound" | RCV Flight 01
Description: A reusable spacecraft which is capable of carrying 1 pilot and 4 passengers into low Kerbin orbit and back.
Mass at launch: 4990 kg


Launch vehicle: Symphony-5k Type-01
(reusable SSTO booster with 5000 kg payload capacity)

Mission objective: Launch into low Kerbin orbit, then de-orbit and land near the space center.

Crew: Newmin Kerman, Henly Kerman, Lemfrid Kerman, Patwin Kerman, Wilke Kerman

"Symphony-5k" SSTO booster on launchpad



Launching into orbit on five toroidal aerospikes. (Started using MechJeb's ascent autopilot this time; 50+ manual launches got tedious)





RCV-01 "First Sound" decoupled from booster, in a 71 km orbit.



The Symphony-5k booster was de-orbited and recovered near KSC.




Landing solely with parachutes





Once in orbit, the capsule is propelled solely by RCS thrusters.



Top-down view of the spacecraft. The pilot module is in the front, while the passenger module is in the back.



Inside the passenger module



After completing two full orbits, the spacecraft was brought home. Three parachutes were added instead of four to save some mass, but this caused the spacecraft to tumble slightly due to the asymmetrical configuration. This was corrected by the SAS on board the pilot module. This particular spacecraft will be retrofitted with four parachutes (on the pilot module instead of the passenger module) the next time it flies.




From left to right: Newmin (pilot), Henly, Lemfrid, Patwin, Wilke



KASDA plans to construct two more RCVs in addition to "First Sound".