Project Le Verrier
- Thread starter Horus Lupercal
- Start date
Off topic, but Im passionate about this scene. Space worthy crew no matter if they're red or blue, are the most level headed people you'll ever meet, so seeing this scene where the cosmonaut and astronaut are tense about one another with the cosmonaut readying a hammer to strike the other would just be low key propaganda.
I bet both men would be excited to see one another, and would be curious to know what their spacecrafts look like, and how they got here (this might not happen because their hardware would most likely be classified material). What are the odds of you being able to see a Soviet cosmonaut in America, or an American astronaut in the Soviet Union? Let alone on the lunar surface? I don't think they'll fuck up the opportunity by tearing at each other on sight.
I bet both men would be excited to see one another, and would be curious to know what their spacecrafts look like, and how they got here (this might not happen because their hardware would most likely be classified material). What are the odds of you being able to see a Soviet cosmonaut in America, or an American astronaut in the Soviet Union? Let alone on the lunar surface? I don't think they'll fuck up the opportunity by tearing at each other on sight.
Horus Lupercal I wonder if I should bring the sample return aircraft back to Earth after its mission. Because during my aircraft maintenance training, I was taught by the head engineer to look out for a type of rusting called Hydrogen Embrittlement, where the cracks and pittings caused can lead to serious structural integrity hazards if not dealt with soon. This can happen to titanium and aluminium.
Since Neptune is mostly consisting of hydrogen, it would be interesting to find out the effects of hydrogen embrittlement in a superheated environment, like say during atmospheric entry.
Since Neptune is mostly consisting of hydrogen, it would be interesting to find out the effects of hydrogen embrittlement in a superheated environment, like say during atmospheric entry.
Horus Lupercal
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Horus Lupercal
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To improve on realism, I'm going to fully declare my fleet:
Local fleet:
- SLS (w/ Block 2 upper stage)
-Delta IV Heavy
-Delta IV Mod-C (fictional cheaper alternative to the heavy, uses twin 4-stage variant of the SLS solid rocket booster)
Foreign fleet:
- Angara-100 (Russian super heavy launch vehicle still in proposal, will be used to launch the heavy fission reactors that will be manufactured in Russia by ROSATOM)
Note: All ship parts fabricated abroad by Europe will be flown into the US to be launched by NASA, the main propulsion and power units that will be developed by Russia's ROSATOM will be launched by ROSCOSMOS in order to share the load.
Local fleet:
- SLS (w/ Block 2 upper stage)
-Delta IV Heavy
-Delta IV Mod-C (fictional cheaper alternative to the heavy, uses twin 4-stage variant of the SLS solid rocket booster)
Foreign fleet:
- Angara-100 (Russian super heavy launch vehicle still in proposal, will be used to launch the heavy fission reactors that will be manufactured in Russia by ROSATOM)
Note: All ship parts fabricated abroad by Europe will be flown into the US to be launched by NASA, the main propulsion and power units that will be developed by Russia's ROSATOM will be launched by ROSCOSMOS in order to share the load.
Altaïr I would like to double check some values.
The flight path for one of the motherships targeting Triton is as follows:
1- The ship detaches from the mothership at high elliptical Neptune orbit, apoapse to be below Nereid, periapse to be between Neptune and its closest moon.
2- Burns to enter Triton capture and low orbit.
3-Burns to leave Triton to redock with main mothership in high elliptical Neptune orbit.
Transfer trajectory to Triton: 118 m/s
Satellization around Triton: 539 m/s
[Only Shuttle] Mothership RDV transfer from Triton delta velocity: approx. 230 m/s
TDv needed: 1426 m/s
Final TDv Leeway: 1600 m/s
Is the total Dv needed correct?
The flight path for one of the motherships targeting Triton is as follows:
1- The ship detaches from the mothership at high elliptical Neptune orbit, apoapse to be below Nereid, periapse to be between Neptune and its closest moon.
2- Burns to enter Triton capture and low orbit.
3-Burns to leave Triton to redock with main mothership in high elliptical Neptune orbit.
Transfer trajectory to Triton: 118 m/s
Satellization around Triton: 539 m/s
[Only Shuttle] Mothership RDV transfer from Triton delta velocity: approx. 230 m/s
TDv needed: 1426 m/s
Final TDv Leeway: 1600 m/s
Is the total Dv needed correct?
Altaïr
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Ok, I finished my homeworks 
But I have values quite different from yours, so I'll try to be as explicit as possible to make sure there's no misunderstatement...
So you start from a high elliptical orbit around Neptune. I considered the periapsis being at 25000 km (below the closest moon), and the apoapsis at Nereid level.
So from there you burn from the apoapsis and put your ship on a Hohmann transfer trajectory to Triton right? That burn costs 64 m/s from my calculation. Then insertion in Low Triton Orbit will cost 230 m/s. Double that to take into account the return part. If you intend to land on Triton, orbital speed around Triton is 313 m/s and its gravity 0.78 m/s2.
In the end, the transfer part will cost 2×(64+230) = 588 m/s, way and back.
Maybe you based your calculation on my previous estimations? Be careful because the transfers "from moon to moon" were supposed to start from moon orbit, and to end in moon orbit. Here this is different as you start from Neptune orbit.
Is that what you needed?
But I have values quite different from yours, so I'll try to be as explicit as possible to make sure there's no misunderstatement...
So you start from a high elliptical orbit around Neptune. I considered the periapsis being at 25000 km (below the closest moon), and the apoapsis at Nereid level.
So from there you burn from the apoapsis and put your ship on a Hohmann transfer trajectory to Triton right? That burn costs 64 m/s from my calculation. Then insertion in Low Triton Orbit will cost 230 m/s. Double that to take into account the return part. If you intend to land on Triton, orbital speed around Triton is 313 m/s and its gravity 0.78 m/s2.
In the end, the transfer part will cost 2×(64+230) = 588 m/s, way and back.
Maybe you based your calculation on my previous estimations? Be careful because the transfers "from moon to moon" were supposed to start from moon orbit, and to end in moon orbit. Here this is different as you start from Neptune orbit.
Is that what you needed?
Altaïr
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That's the same logic as a bi-elliptical transfer, it can be very efficient too. I use this a lot to visit the higher moons of Jupiter. But I'll make the calculation as you say, so we can compare the result, that's still the best way to see which one is more efficient. It depends a lot on the situation.
Altaïr
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Altaïr
Space Stig, Master of gravity
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Oh, I didn't think you actually planned to use ion engines. I rarely use them as I consider them overpowered.
9 ion engines for 400 tons, this represents an acceleration of 0.54 m/s2, so for 230 m/s (insertion in Low Triton Orbit), it requires approximately 7 minutes of burn time. You'd have some delta-V loss indeed, but it's hard for me to tell how much... The good news is that because of their high efficiency, the additional fuel consumption would be rather low.
Insertion in LTO is manageable by starting your insertion burn a few minutes before reaching the periapsis, but leaving is a bit tricky... Either you do this in several steps (by ellongating your ellipse more and more each time you reach the periapsis until you can leave), or you first put your ship on a higher orbit around Triton (your ship will be slower and will stay much longer in the transfer window, and you'll need less delta-V once you're there).
First method is more efficient but requires some anticipation. It should be manageable though, because this moon is on a high orbit, so the launch window won't shift too much during your maneuvers...
9 ion engines for 400 tons, this represents an acceleration of 0.54 m/s2, so for 230 m/s (insertion in Low Triton Orbit), it requires approximately 7 minutes of burn time. You'd have some delta-V loss indeed, but it's hard for me to tell how much... The good news is that because of their high efficiency, the additional fuel consumption would be rather low.
Insertion in LTO is manageable by starting your insertion burn a few minutes before reaching the periapsis, but leaving is a bit tricky... Either you do this in several steps (by ellongating your ellipse more and more each time you reach the periapsis until you can leave), or you first put your ship on a higher orbit around Triton (your ship will be slower and will stay much longer in the transfer window, and you'll need less delta-V once you're there).
First method is more efficient but requires some anticipation. It should be manageable though, because this moon is on a high orbit, so the launch window won't shift too much during your maneuvers...