"Duna Probe Part 1," episode 10 of Cheapo Space Program
6In this episode, we assemble our Duna probe so we can probe Duna in the next episode.
Kerbal Space Program is copyright Squad
https://kerbalspaceprogram.com/
Journey Into Space facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/groups/205479952917334/
This is Cheapo Space Program, my new Kerbal Space Program series where we try to build an entire space program on the back of one rather modest type of rocket booster. This booster in fact:
http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc6/704834_3749539752109_1778981847_o.jpg
The idea is simple: you can only have one kind of rocket booster, and it is not a very big one. You can put whatever payload on top of that rocket that you like, including additional stages, but it all has to lift into orbit on the same booster rocket. It's sort of like a cross between a Campaign Mode and a Scenario.
This is also a game the folks at home can play, with the craft files and instructions here:
http://lizardboys.com/Cheapo_Space_Program.zip
It's the Cheapo Space Program home game! Can you get to the Mun? Can you get to Duna? Can you get to Jool? If you make a Youtube video of your own Cheapo Space Program, let me know in the comments and I will link to it! :)
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TonboIV is playing the Cheapo scenario! Check out TonboIV's first Cheapo video!
http://youtu.be/3wGbdj2RqUk
TonboIV's channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/TonboIV
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I have always wondered, by assembling modular rocket parts in orbit, couldn't the Soviets have built a moon ship without needing their failed N-1 moon rocket? Turns out that Soviet Chief Designer Sergei Korolev was way ahead of me.
http://www.friends-partners.org/partners/mwade/craft/soyuza.htm
He proposed the Soyuz A project back in the early Sixties for a manned circumlunar flight. They would have had to perfect the Soyuz (a process which wound up costing four human lives in real life, not unlike the Apollo which wound up costing three) and would have had to perfect automated docking, but had they focused their entire space program on these two objectives, maybe they would have orbited the Moon before Apollo 8 did. Not likely that they would have, their space program was chronically underfunded (among other major issues), but possible.
While probably no one is going to try to build a moon rocket out of Soyuz-sized bits these days, we can simulate it in Kerbal Space Program! :) Thrills, chills, kerbal deaths and hilarity will ensue! :)
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The "RULEZ" of Cheapo Space Program:
The rules are simple: you can make any modification to the rocket except the following.
1. You cannot change the number or capacity of the fuel tanks in the booster. You can however add any additional stages above it that you wish.
2. You cannot change the number or type of rocket engines in the first stages. You can however add whatever you want to additional stages above it.
3. You cannot alter the staging or arrangement of the fuel tanks or engines in the rocket booster (the first three propulsive stages). Bear in mind however that KSP might screw up my staging, so this rule might not always apply. The three stages are supposed to go as follows:
1. First (outermost) stage strap-on boosters and core booster ignites,
2. First stage drops and second stage strap-on boosters ignite,
3. Second stage drops and core booster continues on.
4. You CAN make any other changes to the booster that are not for added thrust or fuel capacity. You CAN add or subtract RCS tanks and thrusters as you see fit. You CAN add any other equipment you want to the booster stages, so long as they do not add thrust (RCS is exempt from this, since its intended purpose is to add maneuverability, not thrust per se.)
5. You can put anything whatsoever as the payload stage, including additional fuel and engines, so long as the engines do not operate at the same time as the engines in the booster, and so long as the fuel in the payload stage is not accessible to the booster.
6. You either have to deorbit your own junk or leave it in space and take your chances. The rockets in the zip file have a separate computer brain on board the core booster stage to help you with getting rid of your junk, assuming you leave some fuel in the booster to deorbit with.
7. (I forgot this one). Only stock parts, no mod parts.
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