Report: Aurora Arbore XII (Duna STS 3)

Challenge is called "DUNA STS-3: Can You Von Braun me?" Aside Eve flyby, I went for vintage shuttle design on top of a big rocket, as well as landed on poles of Duna. Just like it was proposed by Von Braun for the first Mars landing site (guaranteed flat surface). Also he expected to study Mars desert wildlife and canals... yeah, 1950s stuff.

Full imgur album (137 items) OUT OF ORDER.

Mission: Aurora Arbore XII.

Crew: 5.

Commander: Valentina Kerman.

Cargo Bay Payload:

Turrim Lander (36t);
2 communication satellites.

Forward Utility Cargo Bay:

Construction supplies to prepare Maris Station for transfer to higher inclination.

Goals:

Reach Duna and Maris Station;
Reinforce Maris Station structure;
Deploy Turrim lander, dock and attach it for transfer;
Transfer Lander and Station to polar inclination;
Explore both polar caps of Duna with Turrim Lander;
Return to Station and transfer back to equator;
Run analysis of data at Maris Station lab;
Transfer to Eve, perform reconnaissance and establish communication network for further missions;
Return to Kerbin.

One of the most reliable and decorated SMM - Aurora Arbore was chosen for this mission. It first have received refit to type 1b. Old detachable nosecone with forward RCS systems was replaced by permanent utility cargo bay.

Picture 1. Experimental Launch System lift off.

Another system that AA12 tested was new interplanetary launch system that can lift both fully fueled LAME and SMM in one go. Big step forward for this system is reduction in LKO preparation time and configuration for any mission.

Picture 2. Experimental Launch System in action.

Launch from Kerbin and transfer to Duna went rather ordinary. Using data from previous mission AA12 was able to dive deeper into atmosphere for Duna aero-break and yet reduce stresses applied to the craft.

Picture 3. SMM + LAME separation from Launch System.

Picture 4. Kerbin orbital burn.

Picture 5. Duna Burn.

Picture 6. Planned Duna trajectory.

Picture 7. Duna.

Picture 8. 26km deep aero-break at Duna.

After rendezvous with Maris Station LAME was sent to Ike for remote refuel operation, while crew of Aurora Arbore started EVA work on Maris Station reinforcement.

In several Duna orbits crew installed numerous reinforcements and used EVA struts to connect everything into one rigid superstructure.

When work on Maris Station was done Aurora Arbore deployed Turrim Lander from the cargo bay. It was docked to primary docking port of Maris Station and later secured to the new superstructure with EVA struts.

Picture 9. Maris Station.

Picture 10. Assessing EVA work.

Picture 11. Support beam installation.

Picture 12. More beams.

Picture 13. First EVA strut.

Picture 14. More struts.

Picture 15. Releasing Turrim Lander.

Aurora Arbore was undocked with lone crew member and Maris Station, Turrim lander and crew of 4 have started Duna expedition.

First step was to transfer station into polar inclination over 60 degrees. Maris Station while has its own engines, totally lacks a punch to do one burn inclination change, so transfer was divided into dozen of small 5 degree chunk burns every orbit.

Picture 16. Expedition leave Duna equator and Aurora Arbore.

Picture 17. First of 12 burns.

Picture 18. Another burn.

Picture 19. Another burn.

When Maris Station was over the poles Turrim lander and expedition of 4 kerbalnauts landed on Duna north polar cap. Landing was perfect, but as soil analysis shown that region lacks proper ore deposits. After performing expedition experiments, taking ice samples and planting flag expedition ascended in Tirrim Lander to Low Duna Orbit.

From Low Duna Orbit it was decided to go for the South Polar Cap with confirmed ore deposits. Lander successfully landed at so called South Basin and has started refuel operation. While ore deposits were good Turrim lander in typical engineering fashion lacked in the cooling department. As the result refuel operations took almost 20! days.

Picture 20. Turrim Lander on its way.

Picture 21. North polar cup trajectory.

Picture 22. Parachutes are deployed.

Picture 23. Morning after landing.

Picture 24. Mandatory group photo.

Picture 25. Realizing that north ore deposits are bad.

Picture 26. A bit of reconnaissance before leaving.

Picture 27. Ascend.

Picture 28. Orbital insertion burn.

Picture 29. Repacking parachutes in 0 Gee...

Picture 30. Southern Polar Cap landing trajectory.

Picture 31. Entering the atmosphere.

Picture 32. Landing.

Picture 33. Refueling with 14% ore concentration.

After rather prolonged Duna stay expedition was able to return to Maris Station and started to change inclination of the Station back to the equator.

Picture 34. Leaving Duna South Polar Cap.

Picture 35. Turrim Lander in action.

Picture 36. Orbital maneuvers.

Picture 37. Turrim Lander in Duna Orbit.

Picture 38. Docking to Maris Station.

Picture 39. One of 12 burns to equator.

Picture 40. Maris Station and Turrim Lander returning back to equator.

Meanwhile at the equator refueled LAME has catch up to Aurora Arbore. Then SMM intercepted Maris Station when it was at equator orbit. Reunited crew now had a lot of valuable data and experiments to do at Maris Station Lab.

Picture 41. LAME leaving for Ike.

Picture 42. LAME inserting into Ike orbit.

Picture 43. Landing spot on Ike.

Picture 44. Killing velocity with nuclear engines first.

Picture 45. "Shrimp flip" to oxidizer engines to land.

Picture 46. LAME refuel operations.

Picture 47. LAME leaving Ike.

Picture 48. LAME return trajectory with some aero-breaking.

Picture 49. LAME return burn.

Picture 50. LAME docking to Aurora Arbore.

Picture 51. SMM configured for further travels.

Maris station was yet another time hibernated for the future expeditions. Future missions would benefit from fully functional and reusable Turrim lander. Aurora Arbore left Maris Station to perform second act of the mission - reconnaissance of Eve.

Picture 52. Aurora Arbore leaving Maris Station for Eve.

Picture 53. Calculating Eve burn.

Picture 54. Eve burn.

Picture 55. Aurora Arbore arrived at Eve.

Picture 56. Aurora Arbore correcting to 0 degree inclination after achieving highly elliptical orbit around Eve.

At Eve Aurora Arbore has deployed two communication satellites so further manned and unmanned missions can benefit greatly from good KerbNet access. Elliptic orbit was quite beneficial for the visual observation. AA12 made total of 3 orbits around Eve witch in itself was more than a month and then made escape back to Kerbin.

Picture 57. Aurora Arbore and Eve.

Picture 58. First satellite released.

Picture 59. Orbital adjustments.

Picture 60. Compact communication satellite.

Picture 61. Satellite inserted into polar orbit.

Picture 61. Second satellite going for the equator orbit.

Picture 62. 144 km circular orbit achieved.

Picture 63. Calculating Kerbin return burn.

Picture 64. Kerbin return burn.

Picture 65. Leaving Eve.

And at Kerbin Aurora Arbore once again has tried to make aero-break with LAME. And yet again it have resulted in partial rapid disassembly of LAME. LAME definitely needs more work to become truly reusable module.

After first Kerbin aero-break SMM has slingshotted to Mun and made 2 more breaking orbits before successfully performing landing at KSC.