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Kerbal Missions


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Pre Flight:

Team Name: The Lone Ranger

Available Funds: N/A

Vehicle Name: Traveller

Vehicle Parts List and Cost: Mk1 Command Pod, Mk16 Parachute, TR-18A Stack Decoupler, "Reliant" Liquid Fuel Engine, 3x Radial Decouplers, 3x Basic Fins, Advanced Inline Stabilizer

Design Goals: Just test out my first rocket ever! I followed the basic rocket tutorial plus added fins for stability and the inline stabilizer because why not.

Launch Goal: Learn the controls of flying in KSP

Pilot Plan: See how far the rocket flies, and come back down (hopefully safely)

Illustrations:

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Launch Time: 11:05 AM

Team Members Present: Me! Alex Wilson

Play-by-Play: The launch started out fairly smooth, until I realized that I should have looked up how to actually control the rocket.... It ended up in a tumble at about 10,000M

Photographs: I should also find out how to post the pictures here... (I'll edit later)

Time-of-Flight: 3 minutes exactly!

Summary: I failed miserably at actually controlling the rocket :( that's about all that happened

Opportunities / Learnings: I want to put the second rocket in the same stage as de coupling the radial boosters

Strategies / Project Timeline: I will for sure look up how to control the rocket!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Pre Flight:

Team Name: The Lone Ranger

Available Funds: N/A

Vehicle Name: Orbiter

Vehicle Parts List and Cost: Mk1 Command Pod, Mk16 Parachute, TR-18A Stack Decoupler, T400 fuel tank (x4), "Swivel" engine, "Reliant" engine, T800, "Hammer" solid fuel boosters (x3),

Design Goals: Get safely into/out of orbit

Launch Goal: Execute a proper gravity turn to make it into orbit, and come back.

Pilot Plan: Start the gravity turn at about 5,000 m and slowly lean over to 90 degrees once the rocket reaches ~20,000 m. Whenever the fuel canisters run out decouple them. Once in a relatively circular orbit, execute a maneuver to come back to Kerbin

Illustrations:

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Launch Time: 10:40 am

Team Members Present: Me! Alex Wilson

Play-by-Play: I totally miss timed the gravity turn and ended up turning way too late, which wasted a lot of fuel.... Luckily, the rocket still made it into orbit. Unforunately, the rocket had no more fuel to actually come back to the planet because of the inefficient ascent into orbit.

Time-of-Flight: Infinite?

Summary: Gravity turns are more difficult than anticapted

Opportunities / Learnings: Maybe I'll just skip the gravity turn and do a semi-inefficient turn at 15,000m , which would be easier to do.

Strategies / Project Timeline: I'm going to do it again, but turn better next time

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Pre Flight:

Team Name: The Lone Ranger

Available Funds: N/A

Vehicle Name: Orbiter

Vehicle Parts List and Cost: Mk1 Command Pod, Mk16 Parachute, TR-18A Stack Decoupler, T400 fuel tank (x4), "Swivel" engine, "Reliant" engine, T800, "Hammer" solid fuel boosters (x3),

Design Goals: Get safely into/out of orbit

Launch Goal: Execute a proper turn to make it into orbit, and come back. (This time with enough fuel!)

Pilot Plan: Start the turn at about 15,000 m and slowly lean over to 90 degrees once the rocket reaches ~20,000 m. Whenever the fuel canisters run out decouple them. Once in a relatively circular orbit, execute a maneuver to come back to Kerbin

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Launch Time: 10:50 am

Team Members Present: Me! Alex Wilson

Play-by-Play: Rather than dangerously dance with gravity turning, I opted to do a 45 degree turn at 15,000m. After watching my orbital path on the map, I eyeballed when to move down to 90 degrees, and burned until the periapsis and apoapsis were about equal (75,000 each). Then, after a bit of orbiting I used a maneuver to bring the rocket back to the surface.

Time-of-Flight: ~1 day (orbiting is fun)

Summary: I now know how to orbit!

Opportunities / Learnings: Try to come back into the atmosphere at a slower velocity, the command pod was getting dangerously hot and going really fast.

Strategies / Project Timeline: Perhaps fly to and orbit Mun and back?

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