KerbalX

Details

• Type: VAB
• Class: satellite
• Part Count: 29
• Mods: 1
• KSP: 1.11.0

Mods

• Bluedog DB

The plan to reach the Moon, land men on it, and then have them safely return to Earth was shared by both the United States and the Soviet Union. However there were many steps over the course of nearly a decade that had to be reached before a landing was feasible and that became with acquiring basic knowledge about the Moon itself. While all unmanned probes to the Moon were under the single Luna program the Americans had multiple programs with different mission goals.

The Soviets had many early successes with lunar exploration such as Luna 2 being the first impact probe and Luna 3 returning the first photographs of the far side of the moon. The early Pioneer program made numerous attempts but there were few successes. However American efforts started to catch up in July 1964 with the success of Ranger 7 followed by two more successes with Ranger 8 and 9. This would continue with the Lunar Orbiter and Surveyor programs which would map out landing sites and prove the feasibility of soft landings for future missions.

While other lunar programs had a variety of goals none of them were devoted to high-resolution photographs that would be required for picking landing sites and for truly getting a complete picture of lunar topology. The Lunar Orbiter program was highly successful and over the first three missions had completed the goals of selecting landing sites for Apollo 11 and subsequent missions. The last two missions were focused on more general lunar topology and after a year of missions had mapped much of the Moon and afterwards it was no longer of if a manned landing would happen but when and where.

Each use of the Atlas missile had a custom-modified Atlas missile and not only were there were same variants of the missile but each was modified individually for their specific mission. While some of these modifications were fairly similar for similar payloads it was still a system where each launch vehicle was tailored to the individual payload. This added both time and cost to each mission so plans were made to create a standardized launch vehicle which would need minimal modifications.

The Atlas SLV-3 (Standard Launch Vehicle) was based on the more commonly used version, the Atlas D, and would also be an upgrade to carry any payload meant to be carried any previous type of Atlas. The first Atlas SLV-3 flew with an Agena-D payload in August 1964 for the KH-7 Gambit spy satellite and was a complete success. It became the new standard for the Atlas family and variants of the SLV-3 would fly until 2005 when it was finally replaced by the Atlas V which was an entirely new design.

The Agena-D was the final variant of the Agena upper stage and was developed both to handle an increased payload capacity and to standardize the parts used on the Agena as each previous Agena was custom-built for their individual mission. This combined a standardized launch vehicle with a standardized upper stage and was highly successful.

The Bossart in its SLV configuration is an approximation of the original Atlas SLV-3 and while some parts have been upgraded such as the sustainer engine it’s essentially the same Bossart. It is a stage-and-a-half liquid fueled rocket with the booster skirt, and its engines, jettisoned when there is about 30 seconds left in the stage burn.

The Belle-D is an approximation of the Agena-D and is a liquid-fueled upper stage that is highly efficient in the vacuum of space. While it depends on your mission profile it will handle part of the ascent and the rest of the orbits or will exclusively handle insertion and orbital burns.

The Codac Munar Orbiter (CMO) is an approximation of the Lunar Orbiter and possesses two powerful antennae, a set of four solar panel wings and a small monopropellent engine that’ll give you about 500 m/s dV but with a low thrust. The engine can be used to make orbital adjustments, put it into an impact trajectory when done with your mission, or change your initial trajectory towards the Mun to both avoid an impact and to establish an orbit.

The historical mission profile is to establish a parking orbit in LKO (Low Kerbin Orbit) and I recommend somewhere between 100 and 200 km. This lets you keep the payload in the parking orbit until you desire to make your TMI (Trans Munar Injection) burn instead of having to rely on timing for a direct ascent burn. The initial ascent to a parking orbit can probably be taken care of by the Bossart and the Belle will handle everything else relieving you of leaving the spent Bossart in orbit. You can also choose to use the CMO’s small on-board engine to complete munar burn and send the Belle debris back to impact with Kerbin.

A more a-historical yet challenging approach would be to use a direct ascent where you ascend up to 11,400 km and attempt to intersect with the Mun. There is more than enough fuel in the Bossart to allow you to make more adjustments along the way, make the Munar Orbital Insertion (MOI) burn, and to even complete your munar orbit. If you wish to avoid Belle debris with this approach you might aim for an impact trajectory initially and correct it with the CMO’s engine

Built in the VAB in KSP version 1.11.0.