Project ASARTES: Kerbin Orbit Communications Network, Part 1

D'Artagnan, the ASARTES prototype. Differs from
Launch Version.

 So, yesterday some of you would have seen me doing commentary on the TDRS-L launch. TDRS is the NASA-administrated system of communications satellites that help ensure around-the-clock space-to-ground communications, which is pretty important if you find yourself in space, or if you're trying to do any sort of orbital research.

Kerbal Space Program has an equivalent to the orbits that TDRS occupies, called KEO, which is a Kerbin-stationary Equatorial Orbit, at a height of about 2.7 million metres. I've never really done any KEO projects for a number of reasons, so I thought, for giggles, a good first set of missions for the publicized version of the Zaxton Space Program would be establishing our own, much less populated, version of TDRS, which I am calling ASARTES.

We call this launch vehicle the Richeleau

 So, I designed a small satellite with lots of communications gear, and we're going to strap it onto a launch platform and put it in orbit. At present, there's no real point to this. My current modset doesn't bother calculating range or alignment for radio systems, so there's no "good" reason to do this, except that it's cool.

There were a few false starts with the same basic launch rocket design, owing to a few problems with aerodynamics and some other things I didn't fully understand. We eventually got around that by reducing the number of Solid Rocket Boosters attached to the Richeleau from 4 to 3. When there were four boosters, the vessel was prone to spinning.

If you haven't played KSP yet, or played around with KV Rocketry mod, I recommend it. There's a very satisfying khawump when you touch off the solid-state boosters.

Now, this design is actually well-balanced... it accelerates at just about the right speed, initially, that it is always just about at the terminal velocity for that altitude, under SSB power. I highly recommend giving thought to such designs as these. The lifting body of the rocket has its own probe core, in addition to that on the satellite, which is going to allow me to control it after the probe seperates, meaning I can de-orbit it and keep my space nice and clean.

 My only complaint about the boosters I used is that their lifespan seemed a bit limited, and I spent more time than I would have liked burning vertically against gravity on the main engines, before I got to the 10km altitude at which I like to do my gravity turns. In the future I might use larger SRBS.

Shown on the right is the moment of SRB-Sep, and you can see the main engine kick in. This engine is from KV rocketry. It's less powerful than I am comfortable with, but very fuel efficient, and actually does make a good main "boost" stage for a rocket of this size.

 This photo is a little less clear - I couldn't hit F1 fast enough to get a good screen capture of the moment of seperation between stages. The engine on the Orbital Stage pretty much tore me out of the first stage faster than the decoupler could push me.

I was pretty nervous at this point. I was hoping to make orbit, or at least a 70km apoapsis, on the first stage. I didn't show the map here, but I'd only done about half that by the time I flamed out from lack of fuel.

Aramis takes his first look at the stars.

I also screwed this up, too, and wasted a bit of fuel lugging around the mass of this faring. Basically, you want to blow the faring the instant you're out of atmosphere - once you don't have to worry about aerodynamics, it's just extra mass to waste thrust on.

I'm very happy with the way that KV Rocketry models farings and peels them away. This faring actually had four segments - a modification to the probe made it artificially taller than I thought it would be, which was another modification from previous designs. Not strictly a problem, but I broke a few spacecraft design rules with it, and we'll see if that was worth the effort.

Unfortunately, I actually have to pack house today, so I didn't go much further than this yet. I'd started the launch to see if the rocket even worked, and once I got it into a semistable orbit, I thought it would be a good time to take a break.

I quicksaved here and closed the application, concerned about that low periapsis, which would de-orbit me, but I didn't feel it prudent to wait the half-hour (or time accellerate) to get arouind the other side of the planet and boost it. This could work in my favour, though. I was thinking I would barely make low orbit (70km) on the launch vehicle, and I'm still on the second stage of it.

The plan moving forward will be to milk all the delta-V I can out of what's left of the chemical rocket, then proceed on the satellite's own thrust system. I have no doubt we will get to KEO in short order.