Year 2, Day 290

January 16, 2017January 16, 2017 sayburstuff Year 2 Aurora 4, Aurora Program, Communications, Sarnus V

KerbSat 2, an additional communications satellite, is launched. It is identical to KerbSat 1, except for a longer range communications dish similar to the one on Explorer 1. KSEA engineers realized only too late that by the time Explorer 1 reached Eve, the antenna on board the probe would reach Kerbin, but the relay satellite wouldn’t be able to transmit back! The launch goes well, and the satellite is put into a high polar orbit over Kerbin.

Additionally initial construction work begins on a Aurora 4 – the first test of the full Mun-mission Sarnus V rocket stack. The current thought is to launch, test the docking and transposition maneuver, then re-enter to test the Aurora Spacecraft. If all goes well Aurora 5 should be set to go to Mun!

Year 2, Day 38

October 14, 2016October 14, 2016 sayburstuff Year 2 Communications, Mun, MunSat

The second MunSat is launched – with the two satellites scientists hope that the entire surface of Mun can be communicated with! Next up.. a probe to Mun! Engineers release plans for the Scout probe…. an unmanned lander that should test the feasibility of landing Kerbals on Mun!

Year 2, Day 35

October 14, 2016October 14, 2016 sayburstuff Year 2 Communications, Mun, MunSat

MunSat arrives at Mun, and is quickly ordered into a polar orbit!

MunSat was launched with plenty of fuel to spare… interstellar communications is still a pretty new concept! Meanwhile, another MunSat is prepared for launch at the Space Center – MunSat 2!

Year 2, Day 34

October 14, 2016 sayburstuff Year 2 Communications, Mun, MunSat

MunSat launches on top of a Discovery Rocket! After orbit is achieved, the solar arrays and communications systems are rbought online…

MunSat begins its automated trip to Mun!

Year 2, Day 26

October 11, 2016October 11, 2016 sayburstuff Year 2 Communications, Kerb-Sat, MunSat

Construction begins on a new series of satellites – MunSat! Unsurprisingly, these will provide (hopefully) an extension of the KerbSat communications network to Mun, allowing future missions there to be safer and certainly much chattier!

The two satellites are identical to the KerbSat satellites, except that they will be launched on Discovery Rockets, instead of Horizons.

Year 1, Day 370 (KerbSat Program)

October 2, 2016October 2, 2016 sayburstuff Year 1 Communications, Kerb-Sat

So far the two launches to Mun and Minmus were quite dangerous – short fuel supplies, and absolutely no communication for days and days.

As engineers and scientists work on the future Mun and Minmus rockets, other teams are focused on creating a communications network to make these missions safer!

The design they come up with is the KerbSat network:

Construction begins on 8 identical satellites. While the team is very proud of their design, they admit that they don’t have any clue what they’re doing… Still. They look nice.