Altaïr's crazy stuff

[Lemniscate Biscuit]

TURN ON DARK MODE YOU PSYCHO

I'm used to the solar system fandm's default light mode... My eyes are already scortched.

 

[SHΔRD Aerospace]

I'm used to the solar system fandm's default light mode... My eyes are already scortched.

L

 

[Marmilo]

TURN ON DARK MODE YOU PSYCHO

No, this ain't discord

 

[Noor Nehan]

Ohhhh.... Ok I get it.

Spoiler: suprise

Dragonship3 jumpscare!
View attachment 111399

Aaaahh!
I got scared

 

[Altaïr]

I reworked a little the colors of my Sapphire launcher, honestly it was overdetailed before.

I find it much better now.


I also tried to add a logo to that huge blank space on the first stage (thanks to Prox_xima for his tutorial by the way!), but I'm not convinced. Here are my tries:

I suck at using Gimp, but hey, at least I tried

 

[ILovespace3]

I reworked a little the colors of my Sapphire launcher, honestly it was overdetailed before.
View attachment 111434

I find it much better now.
View attachment 111439 View attachment 111440 View attachment 111441

I also tried to add a logo to that huge blank space on the first stage (thanks to Prox_xima for his tutorial by the way!), but I'm not convinced. Here are my tries:
View attachment 111436
View attachment 111435
I suck at using Gimp, but hey, at least I tried

I think they look good

 

[Noor Nehan]

H

I reworked a little the colors of my Sapphire launcher, honestly it was overdetailed before.
View attachment 111434

I find it much better now.
View attachment 111439 View attachment 111440 View attachment 111441

I also tried to add a logo to that huge blank space on the first stage (thanks to Prox_xima for his tutorial by the way!), but I'm not convinced. Here are my tries:
View attachment 111436
View attachment 111435
I suck at using Gimp, but hey, at least I tried

How did you put the logos???

 

[Altaïr]

I think they look good

Thanks

H

How did you put the logos???

This is a texture. I make the logo with Gimp, then I add it to a texture pack.

 

[Noor Nehan]

Thanks


This is a texture. I make the logo with Gimp, then I add it to a texture pack.

dumb me still asking what is gimp?

 

[Altaïr]

dumb me still asking what is gimp?

It's a graphic editor, the same as photoshop but gimp is free. You could also use Paint or Powerpoint as a simpler alternative.

 

[Altaïr]

So here is the first official flight for the Sapphire. For this occasion I prepared a great mission.
First, let's reach orbit:

Mission accomplished for the Sapphire: That good old Snoot and its ship are in orbit. The russians had Laïka, here is her successor

Of course, Snoot won't just stop there, we will make him do a little trip... Let's go to Venus first!

And that's where I know I play in realistic: just the injection to Venus costed me the whole first stage

Snoot is not equipped to land on that deadly planet, so... we'll send him to another deadly planet instead. Logical...


Now Mercury is within reach, so let's start a serie of gravity assists:


Here is my first close fly-by to Mercury:

10737 m/s
Now we are not playing, if I mess up there's no way I can absorb such a high velocity.

Let's chain 2 other gravity assists:


And finally...

I'm still rushing at more than 5 km/s and my second stage is already largely consumed. That's better than the 10 km/s above, but still huge... Anyway, now I can't retreat. Let's land on Mercury!

Honestly that was very impressive: on the last pic I'm at 1457 m/s (practically Earth orbital velocity in normal mode), the ground was scrolling at a really crazy speed. If the terrain hadn't been practically flat this could have been deadly because I would have had no time to react.

But finally:

Snoot landed on Mercury perfectly safe and sound

The bad news is that Snoot has not even enough fuel to go back to orbit, so I can't take him back home

 

[ILovespace3]

I see you have a tiny little docking port. I'll let you borrow this.

 

[Altaïr]

I see you have a tiny little docking port. I'll let you borrow this.
View attachment 111606

Sounds good. Now if you could send this to Mercury in realistic mode it would be perfect

 

[Lemniscate Biscuit]

Altaïr do you have any recommendations for my mission to Haumea and back (In realistic)?

 

[Altaïr]

Altaïr do you have any recommendations for my mission to Haumea and back (In realistic)?
View attachment 111607

Your ship seems to be built wisely, with efficiency in mind. Have you calculated your ΔV budget?
My best advice would be to heavily rely on gravity assist if you want to save fuel.
For example, for my Mercury mission, I chained 3 gravity assists to lower my speed, this was the result of a fly-by before and after:

In short, my speed dropped by 5700 m/s, and I spent 900 m/s for my maneuvers, so I saved 4800 m/s. For a build like yours that would represent hundreds of additional tons of fuel if you had to provide this by yourself. VEEGA will be your best ally here.

Now for the mission I can't say if it's enough, but if I managed to land Snoot on Mercury with a ship of 150 tons, I would say you can probably done something interesting with nearly 1200 tons

 

[Lemniscate Biscuit]

Your ship seems to be built wisely, with efficiency in mind. Have you calculated your ΔV budget?
My best advice would be to heavily rely on gravity assist if you want to save fuel.
For example, for my Mercury mission, I chained 3 gravity assists to lower my speed, this was the result of a fly-by before and after:
View attachment 111642 View attachment 111643
In short, my speed dropped by 5700 m/s, and I spent 900 m/s for my maneuvers, so I saved 4800 m/s. For a build like yours that would represent hundreds of additional tons of fuel if you had to provide this by yourself. VEEGA will be your best ally here.

Now for the mission I can't say if it's enough, but if I managed to land Snoot on Mercury with a ship of 150 tons, I would say you can probably done something interesting with nearly 1200 tons

Thanks. I was originally going to do direct transfer, but I suppose that Jupiter gravity assist would be more fuel efficient and save time for the crew. (The full coast to Haumea is 70 years)

 

[ILovespace3]

Sounds good. Now if you could send this to Mercury in realistic mode it would be perfect

You have accepted. But wait! The fine print!
*Pulls out an electronicroscope.*
Ahem. The accepting party can only take the vehicle, the giving party doesn't have to give a way there.
Some orbital assembly required. Instructions not included.

 

[Altaïr]

Thanks. I was originally going to do direct transfer, but I suppose that Jupiter gravity assist would be more fuel efficient and save time for the crew. (The full coast to Haumea is 70 years)

Oh, if the trip duration is a concern then it's different. Gravity assists generally make the trip much longer. However in the case of Haumea even a Hohmann transfer is prohibitive. It's possible to shorten the trip by picking a more energetic transfer, but then the ΔV cost skyrockets. For reference, I calculated that the Voyager quest in realistic costed 8297 m/s from LEO. You would have a comparable cost for a Hohmann transfer.

I guess you see the reason why such trips are not even considered seriously in real life... Personally I wouldn't see myself assembling a several kilotons ship in orbit to keep the travel time acceptable ("only" a few tens of years), I would rather make the trip efficient without time constraint, but the choice is up to you.

You have accepted. But wait! The fine print!
*Pulls out an electronicroscope.*
Ahem. The accepting party can only take the vehicle, the giving party doesn't have to give a way there.
Some orbital assembly required. Instructions not included.

What? The shipping is not included?! Shoot, I'll have to see what I can do myself to save Snoot.

 

[Altaïr]

OK, I wasn't expecting that. In the following hours after I landed Snoot on Mercury some members of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) knocked to my door and demanded that I bring back Snoot to Earth immediately. I explained them that it was not technically possible, but they left very angry. I thought they would let me in peace but I wasn't expecting that...

I thought it would be fine, but then this happened...

Oh shit, I can't take the risk that Mariah Carey makes a new Christmas song. Now this is getting serious, I have to do something!

I've prepared a rescue mission for our favorite dog, I'll have to send it as soon as possible:

It will take 4 launches to assemble that beast in orbit. This will be a very ambitious mission.

 

[UN Cosmo Navy]

OK, I wasn't expecting that. In the following hours after I landed Snoot on Mercury some members of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) knocked to my door and demanded that I bring back Snoot to Earth immediately. I explained them that it was not technically possible, but they left very angry. I thought they would let me in peace but I wasn't expecting that...
View attachment 111683 View attachment 111684 View attachment 111685 View attachment 111686

I thought it would be fine, but then this happened...
View attachment 111687 View attachment 111690

Oh shit, I can't take the risk that Mariah Carey makes a new Christmas song. Now this is getting serious, I have to do something!

I've prepared a rescue mission for our favorite dog, I'll have to send it as soon as possible:
View attachment 111689
It will take 4 launches to assemble that beast in orbit. This will be a very ambitious mission.

*Salute Good luck

 

[Lemniscate Biscuit]

OK, I wasn't expecting that. In the following hours after I landed Snoot on Mercury some members of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) knocked to my door and demanded that I bring back Snoot to Earth immediately. I explained them that it was not technically possible, but they left very angry. I thought they would let me in peace but I wasn't expecting that...
View attachment 111683 View attachment 111684 View attachment 111685 View attachment 111686

I thought it would be fine, but then this happened...
View attachment 111687 View attachment 111690

Oh shit, I can't take the risk that Mariah Carey makes a new Christmas song. Now this is getting serious, I have to do something!

I've prepared a rescue mission for our favorite dog, I'll have to send it as soon as possible:
View attachment 111689
It will take 4 launches to assemble that beast in orbit. This will be a very ambitious mission.

The memes.... the jokes....

 

[Marmilo]

Oh shit, I can't take the risk that Mariah Carey makes a new Christmas song.

That would truly be disastrous
An incomprehensible toll on the general population's sanity

 

[Noor Nehan]

Snoot chain

 

[floatingfuel]

I've prepared a rescue mission for our favorite dog, I'll have to send it as soon as possible:
View attachment 111689
It will take 4 launches to assemble that beast in orbit. This will be a very ambitious mission.

Best of luck! Don't let Snoot droops waiting for you

 

[Altaïr]

OK, here we go for the most ambitious rescue mission of all time: bringing back that poor Snoot stuck at 100 millions of kilometers from his home!

Let's first assemble the rescue vehicle:

This needed 4 Sapphire launches in total. I'm glad that those launches are paid with the taxes of the people, they are very expensive. But hey, the people wants Snoot, they will pay for it!

Let's first target Venus and chain 3 gravity assists:

The 2 side tanks were completely used on this occasion and were dropped in Venus' atmosphere on the second pass.

Now I'm on my road to Mercury...


Now I can afford an insertion into Mercury orbit:

Snoot is now within reach, and I have a little extra fuel. The mission is going better than expected until now.

Now starts the most crucial phase: landing close to Snoot and transfer him some fuel so that it can comes back to orbit:

Honestly, targetting a vehicle with precision when you orbit at more than 2700 m/s is far from being easy
But I have way enough fuel to fix a few imprecisions, and...

We have confirmed contact with Snoot. I repeat, confirmed contact with Snoot!

Now I have more than enough to refill that lander, and I still have a little left to assist the lander on its ascent:


Snoot is now in orbit, but it consumed most of the fuel to do so. No worries, that was anticipated, I left a fuel tank in orbit before landing, a simple rendez-vous maneuver will allow to refuel:

Now the hardest part is done, I just have to burn to Venus and then chain 2 gravity assists to bring him back to Earth:

I've been surprised at how expensive could be a Mercury to Venus transfer by the way

But finally, our beloved Snoot is back safe and sound:

HURRAY FOR SNOOT!!!

Oh yeah, there's that achievement too...

Mercury return... That one is particularly difficult to get in realistic. For me it's done