CELESTIA III CAPTURES FAR SIDE OF THE MUN

KSP - Year 2, Day 85

Celestia III, the second probe of it's type, made history when it successfully passed behind the Mun and sent back images of the side that never faces Kerbin. After Celestia II, which is now in a permanent orbit around our star, failed to return to Kerbin after acquiring the images, the staff at the KSC needed to get it right this time.

'What a relief,' Gene Kerman said in a later inteview. 'We needed to hit the mark this time. Had we screwed up again... well, I'd hate to think where we'd be.'

Celestia III, which is an identical copy to Celestia II, took several images over forty-minutes as it passed 62km above the surface of the Mun's far side. The best images released to the public are shown below. After the images were captured, Mission Control had to wait for the probe to return within two-million kilometers of Kerbin so it could successfully transmit the images back. A short while later, the probe burned up in Kerbin's atmosphere.

The most striking feature is the huge impact crater with a very distinct canyon to the crater's north. It seems that this side of the Mun is perhaps much more mountainous than the side that faces Kerbin. Even Celestia II's broken image shows the enormous crater, although no one wanted to speculate at the time due to the poor quality. The crater is not the largest of the Great Craters, but it does appears to have the largest canyon running into it. Although the quality of the images does limit the amount scientific data that can be extracted, staff say there is yet much studying to be done.

Celestia II's image for comparison. It is now clear that the speculated large crater was apparent even in this image.

The booster, which trailed the probe, could not be detected once the probe passed behind the Mun and is thought to have crashed somewhere on the far side.

The next step is rumored to be an attempted landing.

THE MUN RETAINS IT'S FAR-SIDE SECRETS

KSP - Year 2, Day 61

The Mun proves to be a challenging target as Celestia II missed it and shot off into the solar system. The idea of the mission was to capture images of the far side of the Mun for the first time. But an incorrect burn caused the probe to miss its target. Although it successfully flew behind the Mun, it failed to then return to Kerbin to send the images it had captured.

A model of Celestia II performing am attitude thrustering test

However, once Mission Control realised that their probe was not on a return course for Kerbin, they tried to send the data anyway. Most of the imagery was far from clear, but the best example is shown below.

Far side of the Mun from Celestia II

A project spokesman commented:

'We miscalculated a burn due to a faulty booster. We had already missed one transfer causing Celestia II to be stuck in orbit around Kerbin for over a day before the next window. After we knew the probe would not return to a good communication range to transmit the images, we tried to capture the data anyway. Although nothing solid can be concluded from the images, we suspect the far side of the Mun to be quite similar to the side we always see.'

The mistake from Mission Control sent Celestia II and it's booster on an orbit around the Sun, making them the first objects launched from Kerbin to have a heliocentric orbit. The probe continued to send data for three days until it fell out of communication range, destined to forever orbit our star. 

OBSERVER MOSAICS THE MUN

KSP - Year 2, Day 47

Today, the Observer team released an image that trialed a detailed map of the Mun. In recognition that a Mun landing with a probe might happen this year, the team set to work on taking close-up images of the Mun's surface for suitable landing sites. They then pieced these images together like jigsaw puzzle to create a large and detailed map.

'It wasn't a complete success,' said one of the projects leaders. 'There are several gaps in the mosaic. But by the time Observer was back into position to retake the areas we missed, everything was so out of alignment it just didn't work. We have to be quick with this kind of imagery, because everything is moving so fast up there. As it was just a test it wasn't vital to get it right this time, though. It was a lot of fun, but a lot of work. Once the polar studies are completed, we will move Observer to a higher orbit and then do a much more thorough job.'

Below is the work produced by the Observer team. It was made up of 38 separate images and shows finer detail of the cratered surface than other images produced from the probe.

The Mun Mosaic

A single-shot image from Observer to show the detail difference. The smaller craters are not visible using this method of imagery

There is speculation that the KSP staff have left out the blank areas on purpose to conceal objects they have found on the Mun. Objects that they don't want the public to see.

One skeptic commented:

'It's obvious that there is stuff on there they don't want the public to know about. How could they miss an entire equatorial plane with their telescope?'

KSP staff simply laughed at the claims, calling them 'complete rubbish'. The mosaic images were captured in very quick succession and they commented saying:

'We're just surprised we didn't miss more!'

KSP REACHES THE MUN!

KSP - Year 2, Day 36

Named the Celestia Project, the staff at KSP have finally turned their attention on the Mun. Yesterday, Celestia I was launched with the mission to prove that a probe can leave the orbit of Kerbin an successfully reach the Mun. And it succeeded. 

An artists painting of the Celestia-I impact probe

A Houndstone C-2b was used to escape Kerbins gravity and deliver the probe to the Mun. Although a success, the mission, once again, wasn't without glitches. An ill-placed gravity detector unit failed to turn on. Other data, such as altitude above the Mun and velocity, were measured successfully from other equipment, however. Also, the probes separation from the booster altered the course to a point where it caused Celestia I to nearly miss the Mun completely. Celestia I also became the furthest-traveled Kerbal-made object, the first vehicle to enter the sphere-of-influence of another world and also the first to impact another celestial body.

An image of the Mun taken from the Observer telescope showing the impact site of Celestia I

The probe had no propulsion system itself. For a machine that is designed to impact another world and destroy itself, there seemed little sense in adding such systems. So from an orbit of 80km above Kerbin, the second-stage booster took aim and fired the probe to the Mun. Under the watchful eye of CommSat IV, Celestia I crashed into the Mun at a speed of 845m/s just eight hours and twenty minutes after launch.

The second-stage booster followed Celestia I and impacted the Munar surface a few minutes after the probe. However, the booster had nearly half of its fuel remaining, which is a common trend with the launch vehicles. As the missions become more complex, the price-tag usually goes up with it. And can KSP really justify wasting resources like this? When asked about the projects funding, a spokesman replied:

'We are aware that our rocket division is perhaps a little over-zealous. However, we have begun to invest a lot of time into this issue. We have a new series of launch vehicles in development which we can expect to see soon.'

Regardless of this, we look forward to the next mission.

DEATH OF STARCOMM

KSP - Year 2, Day 9

The staff at the Kerbal Space Centre started the second year of their operations with some what of a bleak beginning. The two StarComm satellites, which were the first long-term communication satellites put into orbit, were purposely returned to Kerbin's atmosphere.

After the CommSat geostationary network project was completed, the two StarComm satellites were rendered obsolete. Although arguments were made to use the satellites as back-ups for CommSat, the decision was to test de-orbiting for scientific purposes.

An illustration of one of the StarComm's being lifted into orbit on it's second-stage booster

StarComm I burned up in the atmosphere after more than 270 days of operation. Starcomm II, which was de-orbited several hours later, had complete more than 197 days.

'It was a sad day to see these pioneers of space sent to a fiery death,' said one of the Kerbin Orbital Communications project leaders. 'But they were now obsolete. To use them as spares for the CommSat's meant getting them into the same orbit. Although achievable, they would have used almost all of their fuel to do so and it was deemed pointless. But the teams used to operate the craft will benefit the project more by concentrating on the next phase.'

When asked what those other things might be, the reply, with a smile, was simply:

'Well, the Mun, of course.'

KSP LAUNCHES COMMSAT, THE BIGGEST PROJECT YET!

KSP - Day 347

The staff on the KSP usually don't do things by halves. And to end the year they embarked on the biggest project yet - the placement of a geo-stationary satellite communications network. A total of four geostationary satellites were put into equitorial orbit around Kerbin, 90 degrees apart from each other. Then a further two were placed in polar orbit. The satellites were named CommSat I - VI and are a successor to the two StarComm's that are doing a similar job at the moment.

A new rocket system needed to be developed due to the amount of fuel required to put each satellite at an orbital distance of 2.8 million kilometers. This makes the CommSat series the furthest Kerbal-made objects to date (roughly one-third of the way to the Mun). To achieve this distance, the Houndstone C-2A was presented to KSP. These also sported reusable boosters and a more sophisticated fuel-delivery system. Once the boosters are jettisoned, they will parachute back down into the ocean for collection, refueled and then re-used for another launch.

In addition, the second stage was also a 'smart booster' and had the ability to be remote controlled once the payload is released. This allowed the booster to be de-orbited back to Kerbin to eliminate any danger of a future collision with the satellites. This heralded the 'Orbital Debris Reduction Program', or ODeRP for short.

The C2-A launcher was also able to carry the polar CommSat's into orbit with some modifications and were re-named to C2-B's. Their boosters were not re-usable, but the launch vehicle was a much cheaper option than the Houndstone II system. During booster separation of CommSat VI, one of the boosters collided with the first-stage after a roll misalignment during jettison. This damaged the first-stage, which had to be immediately shut-down and jettisoned several seconds before originally intended. The second-stage and probe were unaffected and were cleared to continue as normal.

A new Houndstone C2-A lifter on the launchpad sporting it's new reusablebooster system. The C2-B had larger boosters for extra grunt for the polar orbits

The whole mission took nearly seven days to achieve. But now that the satellites are there, Mission Control has global communication with any vehicle they put into space. Gene Kerman said at a press release on the mission's completion:

'This is a very valuable step towards our space program. We no longer have to rely on our communications stations around the world to keep in contact with other probes. This ensure things run much more smoothly.'

What a view! An impression of one of the CommSat's illustrating it's orbital distance from Kerbin

FIRST SATELLITE RECOVERED FROM KERBIN ORBIT

KSP - Day 283

Scientists had brought the level of technology down a few notches with their next mission, but had raised the bar of the challenge. Their task was to see if a probe can be launched, put into orbit and then return to Kerbin. Similar projects had been attempted before, but they just went straight up and then came straight back down. This time it had to go up, stay up and then come back down at a chosen time.

Dubbed Frontier III, the first mission was a failure in the end. The launch and orbit went well, but the probe did not survive re-entry. A spokeman said:

'After completing ten orbits it was time to bring Frontier III back down. It was cutting it a bit fine because the batteries were beginning to run low. And without battery power, the parachute won't be able to open. But the data we were gathering was crucial for future mission. After nearly six hours of space-flight, the probe began the re-entry sequence, but we were never able to re-establish a signal.'

An impression of Frontier III in orbit. Frontier IV was identical. Only the nose of the probe returned to Kerbin while the thrusters and main battery packs were destroyed in re-entry

It turned out that Frontier III was running on out-dated software that caused malfunctions during the deadly re-entry, and the probe was destroyed at around 30km. So the software was updated for the next attempt with Frontier IV. This time, the mission was a success and the probe splashed down safely in the ocean. The team at the KSP have done proud again as they move yet another step closer to Kerbal space-flight.