I did a few mods for the Kerbal Space Program game and installed them with a ton of other mods for a unique version of the game, in total there are 83 mods installed, most notably RSS (Real Solar System) this mod replaces the stock game solar system which is ten times smaller than the real solar system and a other noteworthy mod is Kerbalism, this mod adds a level of realism where many things can go wrong such as part failure, science experiments, comms network and several crew welfare considerations such as radiation sickness, food supplies and mental health.
In this game I will use FGM members as in game characters (who never age) as well as the stock game characters, please feel free to sign up (provide a photo so I can mod you into the game) and play an alternative history of the NASA Space program.
So welcome to the Few Good Men Space Program.
Background story:
In early 1951 NASA was still in it's infancy and had by now launched several satellites around Earth and the Moon, collecting valuable science data and increasing our understanding of the universe.
However, several attempts were made to land a probe on the Moon and return it to Earth.
As a result of these failures NASA decided to create a special task force and it was called 'The Few Good Men' and were lead by @Bootie & @Rico . This group was to be the lead design team for all future missions.
@Bootie & @Rico pose for the camera.
The Few Good Men team.
Name Skill Level
@Bootie Engineer 1
@Rico Scientist 1
@Nathangun Engineer 1
@Hedgehog Pilot 1
@Ithikial Pilot 1
@Louis Scientist 0
@Dutch Grenadier Pilot 0
@Rambler Scientist 0
Mission: Land a probe on the Moon and return it to earth.
The team began designing new launch rockets that will give better performance and came up with new designs for the probe that will land on the moon.
As all other designs failed because the rockets were either too heavy to carry the payload all the way to the moon and back or too light that it didn't have enough fuel to launch from the moon.
Soon they built their new rocket/probe for the Moon and called it Phoebe, NASA was shocked with the price tag of the new designs but every body agreed it was a good looking rocket.
The main body of the rocket will lift the payload to orbit, it is hoped that the main body (or the 'lower stage') will be recovered using a lot of parachutes.
The payload below (or sometimes called the 'upper stage'), this payload once in orbit will do the trans-jection burn to the Moon as also land on the Moon. The upper part will launch off the Moon back to Earth, so it's hoped.
In the early hours of July 17th 1951 the Phoebe 1 was launched from the Cape Canaveral launch center in a night time launch.
Below in the screenie, our rocket has made orbit, travelling at 7872m/s (meters per second).
After doing the trans-jection burn, the probe travels across the void of space and 4 days later arrives at the the gravitational Sphere of influence (SOI) of the Moon.
15 hours later, making final approach...
...coming into land...
Touchdown!
After several experiments were concluded, the probe set off for home.
After escaping the SOI of the Moon, our probe makes a course correction burn to Earth, from this far out very little fuel is needed to change course.
Once the fuel has been used, the tank and the solar panels were jettisoned to lighten the load when entering Earth's atmosphere.
It's here the mission fails, I plotted the probe to enter Earth's atmosphere at around 70km above sea level (the atmosphere goes all the up to 140KM) hoping to do a 'Aero-brake' (using the atmosphere to slow down) it slowed down but not enough to land, just stuck in an orbit that will slowly reduce in size over months.
Despite this, I consider the mission a partial success, it prove it was possible to bring a probe back to Earth (even if it didn't land on Earth) and valuable science data was collected.
In this game I will use FGM members as in game characters (who never age) as well as the stock game characters, please feel free to sign up (provide a photo so I can mod you into the game) and play an alternative history of the NASA Space program.
So welcome to the Few Good Men Space Program.
Background story:
In early 1951 NASA was still in it's infancy and had by now launched several satellites around Earth and the Moon, collecting valuable science data and increasing our understanding of the universe.
However, several attempts were made to land a probe on the Moon and return it to Earth.
As a result of these failures NASA decided to create a special task force and it was called 'The Few Good Men' and were lead by @Bootie & @Rico . This group was to be the lead design team for all future missions.
@Bootie & @Rico pose for the camera.
The Few Good Men team.
Name Skill Level
@Bootie Engineer 1
@Rico Scientist 1
@Nathangun Engineer 1
@Hedgehog Pilot 1
@Ithikial Pilot 1
@Louis Scientist 0
@Dutch Grenadier Pilot 0
@Rambler Scientist 0
Mission: Land a probe on the Moon and return it to earth.
The team began designing new launch rockets that will give better performance and came up with new designs for the probe that will land on the moon.
As all other designs failed because the rockets were either too heavy to carry the payload all the way to the moon and back or too light that it didn't have enough fuel to launch from the moon.
Soon they built their new rocket/probe for the Moon and called it Phoebe, NASA was shocked with the price tag of the new designs but every body agreed it was a good looking rocket.
The main body of the rocket will lift the payload to orbit, it is hoped that the main body (or the 'lower stage') will be recovered using a lot of parachutes.
The payload below (or sometimes called the 'upper stage'), this payload once in orbit will do the trans-jection burn to the Moon as also land on the Moon. The upper part will launch off the Moon back to Earth, so it's hoped.
In the early hours of July 17th 1951 the Phoebe 1 was launched from the Cape Canaveral launch center in a night time launch.
Below in the screenie, our rocket has made orbit, travelling at 7872m/s (meters per second).
After doing the trans-jection burn, the probe travels across the void of space and 4 days later arrives at the the gravitational Sphere of influence (SOI) of the Moon.
15 hours later, making final approach...
...coming into land...
Touchdown!
After several experiments were concluded, the probe set off for home.
After escaping the SOI of the Moon, our probe makes a course correction burn to Earth, from this far out very little fuel is needed to change course.
Once the fuel has been used, the tank and the solar panels were jettisoned to lighten the load when entering Earth's atmosphere.
It's here the mission fails, I plotted the probe to enter Earth's atmosphere at around 70km above sea level (the atmosphere goes all the up to 140KM) hoping to do a 'Aero-brake' (using the atmosphere to slow down) it slowed down but not enough to land, just stuck in an orbit that will slowly reduce in size over months.
Despite this, I consider the mission a partial success, it prove it was possible to bring a probe back to Earth (even if it didn't land on Earth) and valuable science data was collected.
Last edited:
).
