Author: sayburstuff

Year 4, Day 196 (Refuelling Craft & Lander Arrive at Harmony)

sayburstuff Year 4 , , ,

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The Refuelling Vehicle arrives at Harmony! screenshot921.png

The lander separates… and the Re-fueling Vehicle docks with the station.  Sadly, the fuel on the vehicle was much less than hoped… future refueling missions that aren’t carrying a lander should deal with this issue.  screenshot923.png

The Minmus Research Lander arrives at Harmony!  Now it’s time for Robart and Samner to get some real science done!  Even with the lower than expected fuel, the station has enough reserves for 6 complete re-fills of the lander.  As the lander is preloaded with fuel, this means the station can handle 7 complete landings, which on Minmus goes a long way!

“I think we should be able to visit every biome on Minmus – exciting!”

-Robart

 

Year 4, Day 193 (Frontier 6 Dips Into Duna’s Atmosphere!)

sayburstuff Year 4

screenshot912.pngFrontier 6 adjusts its orbit to skirt just barely the atmosphere of Duna – a somewhat dangerous maneuver, the craft may experience extreme heat, depending on the (unknown) density of Duna’s atmosphere.

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Frontier 6 drops below 50k… and sensors indicate there is indeed an atmosphere.   The Atmospheric Fluid Spectro-Variometer reports fascinating new insights into the composition of Duna’s atmosphere! After the close pass, engines fire to avoid being dragged further into the atmosphere on future passes.  KSEA has begun to talk seriously about a mission to Duna, and Frontier 6 is providing some compelling new data!

Year 4, Day 189 (Frontier 6 Update – Duna!)

sayburstuff Year 4

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Frontier 6 is getting closer and closer to the rusty red world of Duna!  screenshot907.pngFrontier 6 will enter the gravitational influence of Ike for a short period of time, then attempt to enter Duna orbit!screenshot908.png

Frontier 6 enters into a circular orbit of Duna… now engineers need to reassess what to do with this probe… especially since it has almost 4k of fuel on board… there’s a lot of debate about the next step!

Year 4, Day 178 (Harmony Station Arrives at Minmus)

sayburstuff Year 4 , , , ,

screenshot892.pngHarmony Space Station finally reaches Minmus, and after another very long and akward burn, circularizes.

Relieved cheers and sighs can be heard all throughout Mission Control.  The mission was not a complete success however.  The amount of fuel required to get the Station into Minmus orbit has left it with less than half of the anticipated fuel reserves for it’s lander.

“I suppose we can send a fuel craft to refill the station. But a redesign for the next Space Station is clearly called for.”

-Robart

Meanwhile, Edan returns from Kerbin orbit – as engineers try to figure out the best way to deal with the situation on Minmus!

Year 4, Day 169 (Harmony Station Update!)

sayburstuff Year 4

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Edan, Robart, and Samner launch in an Aurora Crew Vehicle to take command of the Harmony Space Station, and transport it to Minmus orbit!

screenshot868.pngEdan pilots the craft to a high altitude, then circularizes the orbit!

“Starting rendezvous maneuvers!”

-Edan

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Almost there…

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Edan docks the CRV with Harmony!

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Samner and Robart transfer over to the station… and wait for Mission Control to activate the onboard systems!screenshot884.png

Harmony maneuvers to match planes with Minmus… this will be the first attempt to see if this method of transporting Stations is efficient, or even practical!

OOooookay…  this thing is spinning like crazy!

-Robart

screenshot887.pngUnfortunately, Robart is correct… the center of mass on the space station was not properly calculated, clearly… as the engines fire, the craft starts to spin wildly.  Thankfully, Mission Control is able to get the vehicle under control… but it means firing the main maneuvering engine at only 20 percent… the entire process will be a bit of a chore.

“Looks like we’re going to have to fine tune these parts if we want this to be how we send Space Stations out in the future!”

-Samner

The transfer burn is complete… in just a few days the station will (hopefully) enter the Minmus sphere of influence, and circularize its orbit!

Year 4, Day 166

sayburstuff Year 4 , , , ,

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Resolute is outfitted with the next (and last) Harmony Space Station module, the modified Science Module.  Edan is chosen as the pilot for this launch!

“Wow, this cockpit is so roomy compared to the Crew Shuttles!”

-Edan

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Resolute finishes its launch, piloted to just under 100k by Edan!

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“OK… approaching Harmony!”

-Edan

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“Opening cargo bay door… and releasing the Harmony Module!”

-Edan

screenshot860.pngThe module detaches… and after some tricky night-side maneuvering, attaches to Harmony.   Now it’s time for Resolute to head home!screenshot862.png

Resolute swoops in for a landing!

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Success!screenshot865.png

Edan is very pleased with himself, and insists on a photo – welcome home Edan… and good work!  Work begins at once on refurbishing Resolute.   Additionally, work begins on a NEW, as yet un-named Heavy Cargo Shuttle, to hopefully increase the capabilities of the Space Program!

 

 

 

 

 

Frontier 1 & 2 Update (Journey to Sarnus)

sayburstuff Year 4 , , , ,

Frontier 1 is just days from its encounter with Sarnus – Frontier 1 was launched merely to test the capabilities of the Frontier design, and was considered a bit of a long shot. However, this probe will still be the first to reach any of the outer planets. Sadly, it will only have enough fuel to do a high speed fly-by, before continuing on an escape trajectory out of the Kerbol star system!

screenshot849.pngThankfully, the Frontier 2 Probe will soon perform a minor course correction in just 36 days.  If calculations are correct, this will let the probe fly extremely close to Sarnus itself, and then have an encounter with Sarnus’s moon, Tekto. With any luck there will be enough fuel to allow the spacecraft to circularize around this mysterious Moon!

 

Year 4, Day 162 (Frontier 6 Arrives at Duna)

sayburstuff Year 4

screenshot847.pngThe Frontier 6 probe, launched nearly a year ago, enters Duna’s sphere of gravitational influence! The probe is not as sophisticated as a spacecraft launched today would be – but it should still provide a great deal of information to scientists on Kerbin! The onboard computer is given its instructions to circularize the craft’s orbit!

Thankfully, the Frontier probes were all launched with a lot of fuel reserves, to deal with any unforeseen needs, or try to at least.

A new generation of Surveyor Probes are being planned for exploring the other worlds of the Kerbol Star System!

In the meantime, researches back on Kerbin will need to wait a few more weeks as Frontier 6 travels to the periapsis of its orbit of Duna, where the craft will circularize its orbit!