Completed Vikings in Space! (Kerbal Space Programme)

[Ulminati]

Björni Börksson, VSP chief coordinator

Friends! Vikings! Kerbalmen!
For too long have our longboats sat idle. For too long have nations like Kermany, Polant, Kamerika and the Koviet Union retained control of the Aether Waves of space. It it time to reclaim our birthright! It is time to release the Longboats. The Rocket Longboats!

To this end, the Viking Space Programme will conduct a series of forays into the void, our ultimate goal being to land our Viking Raiders on the shores of other planets for a proper rape and pillage session. The recent .18 Rokkit Manifesto shook the Kerbinational Kommunity, throwing the space programmes of other nations of Kerbin into disarray. The time is ripe for plunder!

Prospective Kerbalnauts are undergoing screening in Kopenhagen, Lenmark as I speak. Our 5-step plan to conquer Mün is as follows:

- Stage 1: Kerbin unmanned orbit. Launch an unmanned probe into a stable orbit around Kerbin to spy on the space programmes of other nations gather valuable research data.
- Stage 2: Viking in space. Launch a Kerbal into space, complete an orbit and return the Kerbal safely to Kerbin
- Stage 3: Mapping the Mün. Send a probe into Münar orbit to identify a suitable landing site.
- Step 4: Münar Kontakt: Land an unmanned vehicle on Mün to determine if it is indeed made out of cheese
- Step 5: Viking Konquest: Send a viking to Mün; rape and pillage; return Viking to Kerbin along with acquired loot.

I will not lie to you. The road ahead is uncertain and dangerous. Some of these tasks may take several attempts. Kerbalnauts will most certainly die may be hurt, vehicles may be damaged and Ulminati will probably grow bored or distracted and abandon his LP like he usually does, the cunt; but none of this shall prevent the Viking Nations from achieving their destiny!

Expect live transmissions of our Kerbalnautic Kosmos Kraft launch to commence after the exciting quarterfinals of Kweden's got talent!

(That is, tonight, after I get home from work).

 

[Hellraiser]

I eagerly await all the rape and pillaging that will happen in space, mostly the tasteful rape.

 

[Burning Bridges]

from the rival agencies!

I still need to get experience with docking. It's not hard, or is it?

We have now three LPs going simultaneously. It seems KSP is a real game!!!

 

[Ulminati]

I still need to get experience with docking. It's not hard, or is it?

Not if you plan things right. If all your orbits are on the same plane, it's not too difficult to get a rendezvous within 1km at a relative speed of about 50m/s. From there on, you just have to carefully (ever so carefully) manage your approach using RCS and switching between the two stations to continuously line the docking ports up. If you use it, Mechjeb can keep your docking port parallel with a target port automatically. Then it becomes almost trivial to nudge things into place using IJKL+HN.

Kraftworld Kodexia was hell. My rokkits were wobbly and unbalanced, and orbits were all over the place. Definately consider how difficult it's going to be to match orbits when designing your rockets. Solar panel arms in paticular tend to be wobbly affairs. A lot of people on the official forums suggest using tricouplers with 3 docking ports to link the larger segments of your space station together, as larger stations tend to shake quite violently when maneuvering them to align docking ports.

I don't plan to do anything too fancy in this LP just yet though. I rather liked Hellraiser's approach of starting small and going through all the various steps rather than jumping straight into a Münar landing.
If I still have the stomach for uploading and commenting screenshots once the Münlanding is done, I'll start on some docking stuff. Either a Spehss Station or some sort of multi-part orbiter/lander mission to Mün, Duna or Minmus.

 

[Burning Bridges]

If you plan things right, it's not too difficult. If all your orbits are on the same plane, it's not too difficult to get a rendezvous within 1km at a relative speed of about 50m/s. From there on, you just have to carefully (ever so carefully) manage your approach using RCS and switching between the two stations to continuously line the docking ports up. If you use it, Mechjeb can keep your docking port parallel with a target port automatically. Then it becomes almost trivial to nudge things into place using IJKL+HN.

that still sounds complicated

I don't plan to do anything too fancy in this LP just yet though. I rather liked Hellraiser's approach of starting small and going through all the various steps rather than jumping straight into a Münar landing.
If I still have the stomach for uploading and commenting screenshots once the Münlanding is done, I'll start on some docking stuff. Either a Spehss Station or some sort of multi-part orbiter/lander mission to Mün, Duna or Minmus.

Of course, this approach is the most fun. But the problem is that there seems to be still no way to switch between manned / unmanned capsules, so you cannot really design and test a complex rocket + staging that way, if you want to use another capsule you must start over. And this is a problem for me because a small mistake in anything, be it staging or fuel lines etc can mess up everything. They should really add that feature.

But to your approach. I began with Munar landings right away and regretted it a bit, because later on I developed better spacecraft from the ground up, and I realized how much more fun this was.

 

[Ulminati]

Of course, this approach is the most fun. But the problem is that there seems to be still no way to switch between manned / unmanned capsules

Viking Ingenuity will save the day

 

[Burning Bridges]

You mean like editing the .craft files? Would that mess up the coordinates?

 

[Ulminati]

Note: I scaled down all the images in this update to save bandwidth. It had the unfortunate side effect of making the text illegible on some of the instruments. I'll return to 1920x1200 in the future and spoilertag the updates to preserve bandwidth instead

LENMARK CAN INTO SPACE!

Börkity Björk, fellow Kerbins. That was some exciting Kweden's Got Talent quarterfinals, was it not? I'm rooting for the meatball juggling act!
We here at the VSP HQ have been working tirelessly and are proud to unveil our first satellite! Using advanced scientific equipment, we will be able to spy on our Kommunist Kompetitors programs better prepare our brave Kerbalnauts for the rigors of Kosmic Kruising. For this stage 1 of our space Program, we will be attempting to move an unmanned probe into a stable orbit, 100km above the surface of Kerbin.

The satellite in all its glory. It contains numerous pieces of scientific equipment, as well as radio transmitters, batteries and solar panels.

The satellite is mounted atop a Pölse Orbital Alignment Facilitator, which contains a SAS module, RCS fuel and nozzles as well as a small engine. Once out of the atmosphere, this unit will deliver the satellite to its intended orbit.

To free the Pölse from the tyranny of gravity, we have designed Lenmarks first space rocket: The Mjödhorn I. It features two stages of liquid motors, as well as steerable canards to keep it stable inside Kerbins atmosphere.

Launching in T-minus 5... 4... 3... 2...

*thunk*

Er.... We meant for that to happen!
Engines -- IGNITE!

Nothing happens for a while until

WHAT THE HELL!?

Leaving the immobile Mjödhorn launcher standing on the pad, the Pölse soars towards heavan. Unfortunately, RCS is not yet activated and it proves impossible to control. It splashes down in the ocean. Fortunately Vikings are home at sea and retreiving the satellite proves to be fairly straightforward. It is left to dry overnight.

I CAN FIX THIS! Give me a moment, BROs!

Going over the design, nothing appears to be wrong. Except the staging between releasing the Mjödhorn and igniting the engines. I assume the sudden drop damaged them in some way. I rearrange the staging steps so the rockets fire in the same step as the stabilizing gantry lets go and try again.

WE HAVE LIFTOFF!

The auxillary tanks are emptied and discarded at 8500m. Because they had fuel lines feeding into the main tank, we're still left with 3 full canisters to make our orbital insertion maneuver.

Starting gravity turn a bit early to make maximum use of the Mjödhorn canards. SAS is kept on at all times except during the maneuvering stages.

The navcomputer confirms a trajectory to exit the atmosphere. Engines are cut to preserve fuel while mead is passed around and much cheering occurs in mission control.

An orbital insertion burn is planned for once the rocket reaches apoapsis.

Burn started a little early. But it shouldn't impact the final trajectory too much. What's slightly more worrying is the amount of fuel remaining in the Mjödhorn since the computer claims a 44 second full power burn is necessary to reach orbit.

So the Mjödhorn runs out of fuel before escaping the cruel clutches of gravity. But it has delivered the Pölse into space and thus served its purpose. The Pölse payload is fairly light however, so future versions of the Mjödhorn will probably need more fuel or lift.

The Pölse works towards orbit. Since it has achieved a fairly smooth exit from Kerbin, the navcomputer is not necessary at this stage. A simple prograde burn is and time is all that's needed.

It takes a few orbits, burning either prograde or retrograde at apoapsis and periapsis to stabilize everything into a satisfactory orbit. But eventually the Pölse reaches a lovely 0 degree inclination orbit, with a height of 104.106m at apoapsis and 999.986m at periapsis. This is well within mission parameters.

Münrise as the Pölse adjusts its orbit, reminding all of Lenmark that the Viking Destiny lies on other shores

Mission control initiates final seperation. The satellite drifts slowly away from the Pölse.

Radio antennae and solar panels deployed, Lenmarks first satellite is in place and functional. A giant leap ahead for Viking Science!


Stay tuned for more developments as our Viking Videnskabsmänd analyze the collected espionage scientific measurements!

 

[Hellraiser]

It can get into orbit but the important question is, can it rape and pillage?

 

[Ulminati]

Silly Hellraiser. Of course it can't. It's an inanimate object. Only Vikings can rape and pillage. But the next step will be to send a viking into space, have him rape hard vacuum and return him to Kerbin!

 

[Ulminati]

MISSION 2: There and back again

Spoiler

In preparation for the launch of the first Viking into Kosmos, VSP HQ prepares an unmanned test of the Mjödhorn rocket. Concern was raised during the Mjödhorn I satellite deployment that it may not have sufficient fuel to deliver a viking into orbit. Rather than spend unnecessary resources designing and approving a new rocket, the VSP bard of directors have decided to glue a Kommand Kapsule onto a Mjödhorn I unmanned module and control a test deployment from the surface of Kerbin. Mission objective will be to complete at least one orbit arund Kerbin and return the Kommand Kapsule to the surface. Should this mission prove the Mjödhorn able to the task, our next mission will see the first viking Kerbalnaut into space!

The Mjödhorn II in all its majesty!

Ignition in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1...

Initial escape seems promising. However, the gravity turn started later than in the previous mission, prompting the Pölse to expend way more fuel to enter orbit.

With barely enough fuel left to complete initial burn, there was severe doubt the Pölse would be able to return to Kerbin, short of pointing the Kommand Capsule in a retrograde vector and using the Safety Seperation Engines to shoot it back towards the ground.

However, it turned out the periapsis of the orbit skimmed through the atmosphere of Kerbin, allowing the vessel to aerobrake.

Headed back towards periapsis, a brilliant Viking Videnskabsmänd pointed out that there was plent of fuel left in the RCS tank. Enough to have ensured the desired orbit if we wanted to. And also enough to burn retrograde and control the splashdown.

Final approach towards Kerbin. The Pölse will splash down safely in the ocean where Vikings are most at home.

Final seperation of the Kommand Kapsule

A minor hiccup occurs in the 11th hour. As noone is controlling the Kommand Kapsule, it is unable to deploy its parachute and is severely damaged during splashdown.


All in all however, the mission proved that the Mjödhorn, being of superior aryan design, is more than up to the task of ferrying a Kerbalnaut into orbit. Stay tuned to meet the stupid brave Viking who will bring terror to the void!

 

[Stereotypical Villain]

Send me on the Eye of Terror mission.

 

[Ulminati]

Send me on the Eye of Terror mission.

Lenmark is obliged to indulge its brave fellow vikings

 

[Hellraiser]

You're sending him straight into Kerbin's parent star aren't you?

 

[Ulminati]

You're sending him straight into Kerbin's parent star aren't you?

Since when did I not treat my fellow codexians with dignity and respect?

(No, seriously. It's been so long I can't remember when I last treated anyone nicely).

Mission 3: You Will Believe A Viking Can Fly

But first, a word from our sponsors:
In the interest of aiding the Kodex Kerbalnaut Kommunity, all vehicles in this LP will be made available in the updates in which they are featured. Simply unzip the following file into one of your version .18 KSP save folders and you, too, can enjoy Danish Design in space.

Mjodhorn I is the satellite deployment vehicle. Mjodhorn II has a command pod and ladder instead. For both Mjödhorn rockets, action group 1 (Default key is 1 on the keyboard) will toggle equipment on the satellite or ladders between deployed/stowed states. The Rocketcar in SPH is how I got Stereotypical Villain to the Mjödhorn II despite it being built as an unmanned craft. I'd give Hellraiser full credit for the idea, but that would involve admitting the Mjödhorn I satellite was used to spy on Polant space science. The rocketcar is (sort of) easy to steer. Just give it a few seconds at the very minimum of thrust, engage RCS and use it to brake. You should be able to roll right up to the launch platform.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/18263459/KSP/Ships.zip

Spoiler

Mjödhorn II on the launch platform. Just look at Stereotypical Villain on the Kerbalcam. He's strapped onto tons of rocket fuel, put together by the same people who made Aqua and he's utterly calm. That is one unfazed motherfucker right there.

So unfazed, in fact, that he forgets to turn on the SAS during launch. The Mjödhorn II was rather wobbly at launch, a side effect of time compression while SV made his way to the space ship. It quickly veers out of control and we're given this excellent oppertunity to test the "Abort!" button.

Oh, cool! It works!

Take 2. As a bonus, marvel at the stylish Rocket Car used by Stereotypical Villain to reach the shuttle. ORIGINAL LENMARK DESIGN! POLANT KERBALNAUT DO NOT STEAL!

This time launching with SAS engaged. Just look at that SV on the Kerbalcam. One. Unfazed. Motherfucker.

Wait! SV! Where are you going!? Equator is not that way!

Screw you, Lenmarkian faggots! I'm headed off to hunt the Kazi submarine hidden under Antarctica. PRISONER OF ICE!

Er, well, I guess nowhere did the mission plan call for the orbit to be equatorial.

(I honestly have no idea why the rocket veered this much off course. I kept my eyes on the navball all the time and it never went off the intended course. I blame my willful Kwedish Kerbalnaut!)

Despite his suborbital shenanigans, SV was still able to get the Pölse to a sufficient height for it to navigate into orbit.

During the third orbit, SV even found time to perform a short spacewalk. He unzipped his spacesuit and trie to skullfuck the void in true viking fashion. He later claimed it was the most powerful blowjob he had ever experienced.

But eventually, all SVs must return to antarctica to finish their unfinished LPs. As with the previous flights, using RCS fuel to do a retrograde burn is the easiest way to enter the atmosphere, then just lie back and wait for drag to do the rest.

Sadly, SV blew his load too soon. Instead of landing on antarctica, drag slowed him down too quickly and he was forced to swim. I guess his LP won't be updated anytime soon.

But the splashdown was safe and successful, once again proving the superiority of Lenmark Design!

 

[Stereotypical Villain]

 

[Hellraiser]

He could always swim to antarctica

 

[Ulminati]

He has plenty of time. I've a couple of unmanned missions planned before we'll need his services again.

I gotta say, I'm really happy with the Mjödhorn series. They're simple and super reliable. It only took tiny modifications to prepare them for the next mission.

 

[Ulminati]

Mission 4: POW! Straight to the Mün!

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/18263459/KSP/Mjodhorn III.zip
Mjödhorn III. To use, extract into .../KerbalSpaceProgram/Saves/[your save here]/Ships/VAB/

Spoiler

My fellow Vikings! The longboats shall not remain docked while we await the return of thane SV from the frozen wastes. The aesir have decreed that vacuum is not a worthy foe to rape and pillage. We must set our sights further! Me must set our sights at... The Mün! In the comind days, we will be launching a series of vessels to scout ahead of our invasion force. These will help us determine which parts of the Mün are ready for plunder. Praise Odin!

The Mjödhorn III is based on the tried and proven Mjödhorn I design. The Pölse Mk II Orbital Alignment Facilitator has been given a bigger fuel tank to facilitate orbital transfer maneuvers, and the Mjödhorn stage 1 boosters have been given slightly bigger fuel tanks to help bring the additional weight into orbit.

The Mjödhorn Longboat sets off at Münrise, to make the most of the high tide. This is exact viking science honed through thousands of years.

Launch and gravity turn proceed flawlessly. Levitation from Lenmark is a seal of quality almost as stronk as Kermany Kerbalnautics these days.

Final orbital alignment of the Pölse Mk II. Plenty of fuel remains in the tank for transfer orbit and adjustments. Pretty much any orbit will do - although equatorial will make the transfer orbit easier to achieve - so long as periapsis clears the atmosphere. Since the satellite is not going to stay here for long, there's no need to make the orbit pretty.

Orbital transfer is basically raising the apoapsis of your orbit until it breaks free of Kerbin's (or whichever body you happen to be orbiting) sphere of influence. Moving great distances takes time, so you'll have to aim your new apoapsis ahead of whichever body you're transferring to. Since Mjödhorn III is moving slowly to conserve fuel, a course is plotted roughly 60 degrees ahead of Mün. It will take almost a full minute at maximum burn prograde to bring it to the Mün. The Mjödhorn I might have been able to achieve this - barely - but Münar Orbit Insertion would have been done using RCS only and left very little margin for error.

Burn complete. The orange line on Mjödhorn III's trajectory marks the point where it enters the Mün's sphere of influence. Orbital insertion burn will be made once it gets there.

It takes several days to travel that far, so liberal use of time warp is applied.

*click* *click*

WHAT THE HELL!?
Systems not responding!

The Mjödhorn III floats past its maneuver point with no engines firing or anything. A glance in the resources tab (upper right) reveals the problem. with engines off and solar panels stowed, the batteries have run out of juice and the vessel can no longer be controlled.



So close and yet so far. The fault rests squarely at Viking Space Kontrol. The Mjödhorn III is equipped with solar panels, but noone thought to deploy them for the transfer orbit. The responsible thralls are rounded up and sacrificed as an offering to Loki. Hopefully he will be appeased and stop playing these costly pranks on us. With no way to control the satellite, it drifts off into deep space.

Regardless, the rocket design has proven itself and a sister rocket is launched immediately.

And this time, the god damn solar panels are deployed while still in orbit around Kerbin

Orbital adjustment and orbital transfer burns proceed as with its predecessor.

Approaching transfer burn point. MÜN! WE'RE COMING FOR YOU! PREPARE TO BE BOARDED!

As the Pölse Mk II enters the Münar SOI, a retrograde burn is planned to bring it into orbit

There is plenty of fuel to spare, so several small burns are performed to get the satellite into a nice, even, equatorial orbit.

Final seperation. Scout Satellite will now gather data on suitable coastal points to raid and beam it back to VSP HQ

Horn of Heimdall, that's a beautiful orbit if I ever saw one!

 

[Hellraiser]

You call that a Munar orbit worthy of Vikings? The Potatoes are real men, sending probes to glide just barely above the surface between 9 and 14,6 km!

I need to update my LP after I finish the next Europareich chapter. Polant made a major discovery on the Mun, one which will be classified and the target of a secret program along with many conspiracies. However I can't tell you more, the agents would have to shoot you if you knew too much.

 

[Ulminati]

Kerman physics texts revealed to us that higher orbit makes Mapsat plugin cover more ground each pass. And since the satellite cannot be controlled after deployment, 60-80 kilometers was determined to be the optimal compromise between ground covered and image resolution.*

Further missions to deploy a LootLab™, a rover and uplink stations on Mün are in the works. We plan to have everything ready for SVs glorious raid on the Mün once he finishes swimming home from Antarctica.

That said, odds are I know what Polant major discovery was, as I flew past it during the initial insertion orbit (but flew past too quick to snap a screenshot). The VSP fully intends to land there during one of our next missions.

We're currently debating whether or not to use a Rover plugin. It would be pretty to have SV land near a rover with one vehicle, then drive the rover a couple of kilometers until he reaches a return vehicle to fly home in.

*Mapsat wasn't actually deployed. I'm keeping things vanilla so far in the interest of allowing others to use the Rokkit designs

 

[Burning Bridges]

You call that a Munar orbit worthy of Vikings? The Potatoes are real men, sending probes to glide just barely above the surface between 9 and 14,6 km!

I need to update my LP after I finish the next Europareich chapter. Polant made a major discovery on the Mun, one which will be classified and the target of a secret program along with many conspiracies. However I can't tell you more, the agents would have to shoot you if you knew too much.

Indeed, if you really want to see the surface and look landing sites, orbits can be done at very low altitudes, where you actually see anything.

I don't know about the current version, but in earlier ones munar orbits were possible at 3, 2, or theoretically even 1km. In 0.14 I did 2.5 orbits at 3000m, before the orbit decayed and the craft crashed. Much more would have been possible had I just made the necessary corrections. From experience I would say 3-4 km was fine if you correct your speed after every orbit.

The Koviet Union explored most of "old" Mun 1 year ago. The full story of their munar polar orbit exploration can be found here. Unfortunately since then the Mun was replaced it with a tiny, ugly potato, which is only optimized for low altitude graphics. From far away the old Mun looked much better imo.

 

[Ulminati]

The "real" reason I didn't go for a manlier orbit is fuel-related. I messed up the fuel lines on the mk III, causing it to consume way too much during ascent. I had to use about 50% of the polse tank just to reach a Kerbin orbit. The rest went during the transfer burn. Most of the Munar orbit insertion was done with rcs thrusters. If I launched the mission again and connected the fuel lines prop'ly, I could do a manly orbit. But to be honest I'd rather design a new rocket for transmunar missions and start deploying landers.

I figure a "rocket car" rover/lander could be pretty hilarious. But there is no way the mjodhorn could deliver that to mun if I build it from stock parts. Not even if I learned how to optimize fuel efficiency during gravity turn/Orbital insertion. Keep in mind I only got ksp this weekend. I'm a bit of a noob at this. (Albeit a noob with a physics education)

 

[Burning Bridges]

Why do you need fuel lines at all?

I sent a ship to the Mun with 1 engine and ~17 tons of fuel, your Mjodhorn uses 3 engines which require more fuel, but no fuel lines.

 

[Ulminati]

I use them to drain the boosters and preserve fuel in the main tank during ascent. But in the mk3 I used in the update, I attached them to the wrong tanks. That caused the main stage to be at 25% fuel after I shed the boosters. Since I used the second stage as an indicator for when to start my gravity turn, my orbital insertion got fucked up.

Hence why I'm pretty certain I could get a small payload to a manly orbit if I tried again. But the current design is still fast approaching the limit of what it can do. Especially if I want to ship a rover or a lander with a return stage