KerbalX

Details

• Type: VAB
• Class: ship
• Part Count: 24
• Mods: 2
• KSP: 1.11.0

Mods

• Bluedog DB
• Squad (stock)

The Space Race between the United States and Soviet Union began on October 4th, 1957 with the Soviets launching the first ever man-made orbital satellite, Sputnik 1. This jump-started the American space program which hadn’t always been a priority during the Eisenhower administration. However the program was lagging behind as most space program goals were dependent on vehicles which were in their earliest stages of design thus the fledgling NASA had to make a decision on whatever or not to buy pre-existing rockets and hopefully successfully modify them as early man-rated launch vehicles or fall further behind the space race.

The PGM-11 Redstone became America’s first long range ballistic missile in 1958 after it successfully became the first ballistic missile to successfully carry and detonate a live nuclear warhead. The sometimes problematic project traced its roots back to the last few years of World War II when it had been developed from captured V2s and improved upon by Werner Von Braun himself. A variant of the Redstone, the Jupiter-C, would be extended with bigger fuel tanks and be used as a launch vehicle for unmanned missions. Furthermore, the Jupiter-C variant of the Redstone was modified into a man-rated launch vehicle (MRLV) and would successful carry (and return) America’s first two astronauts, Alan Shepard, and Gus Grissom.

The plans for a manned space capsule began in earnest in 1952 but the first couple of years were mostly concerned about its basic design and dimensions and by 1957 there were a number of different proposed craft by the NACA, later NASA, and even the USAF. The plans were eventually settled in 1958 with establishing a goal of using the already proven Redstone missile, modified for manned sub-orbital missions, for the first manned missions. The actual space capsule was designed by McDonnell and it was later designated as the craft for both sub-orbital and orbital missions.

By late 1960 the first Mercury spacecraft flew with some issues during its first unmanned launch but eventually by January 1961 it launched the first non-humanoid primate, Ham, successfully into a sub-orbital trajectory. The same spacecraft would be used for twenty different unmanned flights and six successful Mercury missions including first American astronaut into space (Mercury 3), first American astronaut to orbit the Earth (Mercury 6), and first American astronaut to be in space for over a day (Mercury 9).

The Hermes spacecraft is a Bluedog Design Bureau approximation of the Mercury space capsule. It stimulates a number of systems including both main and drogue chutes, experiments, basic RCS thrusters, and the deployable control flap used during re-entry operations.

The launch vehicle is the Etoh-H (Etoh-Hermes) rocket, a Kerbal-rated version of the Etoh rocket which is itself an approximation of the Redstone rockets. It is a simple one-stage rocket meant to carry the Hermes spacecraft into a sub-orbital trajectory. It has a single decoupler with separation aided by several small separation motors located on the retro-engine pack.

The recommended mission profile should approximate the missions of Mercury-Redstone 3 and 4 with a simple pitch control program. You should begin with a vertical ascent until reaching a speed of approximately 100 m/s at which time you should begin gently pitching over to 60 degrees to extend your trajectory curve. You should probably aim for an eventual apogee of between 80 and 100km which should put you about 250 to 400 km downrange from the KSC.

The main engine should be decoupled and separated upon exhaustion which will be aided by the small separation motors on the spacecraft itself followed by ejection of the launch tower as it will no longer be necessary to abort the mission. Once you reach space the first thing you can do is to turn on RCS and turn around to get a view of KSC from 70km above. It isn’t strictly necessary but you can turn to retrograde and start your retro fire sequence with each of the three rockets firing in a sequence. You’re not entering a stable orbit so they aren’t required to return you to Kerbin.

The retro pack can be ejected any time prior to hitting the atmosphere after which you should close up the periscope (if still extended), start a gentle roll to stabilize your re-entry, and prepare to deploy the drogue chute somewhere around an altitude of 12 to 20 km. The thicker atmosphere and drogue chute should slow your descent drastically which should you in position to start your final landing. This begins with decoupling the heatshield, cutting the drogue chute, and deploying the main chute to slow your descent to about 40 m/s. Once the main chute has fully deployed slowing you to about 6 m/s you should deploy the landing bag and await a successful splashdown.

Built in the VAB in KSP version 1.11.0.