Orbital and Early Munar Missions
Continuing with the orbital historical missions, next up is Vanguard 1 which is still orbiting today!
Launch date: 1y, 2d
Vanguard 1
Vanguard 1 craft (5102 dV)
Must make orbit with a periapsis above 600 km (minimum altitude) and generating solar power.
Good job (650 km orbit)
<Vanguard 1>
Explorer 6 just required changing the probe on the Vanguard setup. Also added the probe camera so I could get science from orbit.
Launch date: 1y, 2d
Explorer 6
Explorer 6 craft (4910 dV)
Orbit above 250 km. Send science back to complete contract.
<Explorer 6>
I got the Luna 1 contract. That will require some construction (and fund adjustment as well since the decoupler costs 5 times the payment).
Need to build and test using the Luna 2 craft since there does not seem to be a Luna 1 in my stock.
I did a lot of sims trying to do a direct launch. That just can't make it. Even when I lighten the load a bit. I am trying to use the Sputnik rocket. I can make it if I go orbital first. I realize I may be able to do a rendezvous by doing a turn but not circularizing and going straight to Mun. I just don't know how to figure that out. I guess I should just do the circ and transfer approach.
<Pre Luna>
Luna 1
Trouble not unlike what happened! My orbital burn was way early for some reason (unclear why). As a result, I ended up with a low periapsis and had to adjust before the Mun burn as well as using too much fuel. Fortunately, it worked out and I flew by the Mun by "accident" of a bad burn.
<Luna 1>
Luna 2 has to hit the Mun. That should be easy, I had to adjust Luna 1 to stop it.
No problem.
<Luna 2>
Luna 3 was interesting. The solar panels were broken (was that historical?) so I had to use reserve power sparingly to handle the mission. It was a Mun flyby (nearer than 600 km) that sent back science and then entered Kerbin orbit. I was able to pass by at 35km so I got some high and low orbit science. I also got some nice photos because the Luna 3 has an onboard camera. Despite the power issues, successful mission.
<Luna 3>
Next up is Discoverer-13 which was the first reentry recovery mission ever. I don't have a discoverer or Coronado probe (which was use) but I have a Stardust Return Capsule which will collect Goo and return it so I will do that to complete the contract. I will also transmit some science back as well to complete a second science contract at the same time. This is pretty much going to use stock equipment I think.
The Discoverer sim went fairly well although it is a much more manual mission. I need to handle flying (no SAS). It is a stubby rocket so you go up at half throttle. Do the goo and return. Should do well, plenty of dV for the mission (125 km orbit).
<Discoverer 13>