Trying to create an early payload that carries (4) Science Jr's, a pair of Mystery Goo pods and other assorted elements along with a Kerbal.

The early tests worked so-so...

Test #1 was just to verify that the payload could land soft enough on Kerbin to protect the Science Jr's from landing shock.



Test #2 was an attempt to get up into the upper atmosphere.  It failed, but the emergency abort system worked well enough for a soft touchdown.



Test #3 was another attempt to get higher into the atmosphere, and it failed even more spectacularly.



Back to the drawing board...

Third iteration of the Science Lander.  The science payload consists of:
  • (2) Mystery Goo experiments
  • (3) 2HOT Thermometers
  • (4) SC-9001 Science Jr
Other elements in the payload stage are:
  • Command Pod Mk1
  • Seperatron I rockets used for abort system
  • LT-1 Landing Struts
  • Five 1.25m Heatshields to protect Science Jr and landing legs
  • (2) HexCan Life Support Waste-Small and (2) small life support supplies (44 days)
  • (2) Comm-16 antenna
  • (2) KE-S210 Kethane scanner (250km range)
  • RCS jets and FL-R25 fuel tank (inline, 1.25m)
  • T400 fuel tank + LV-T45 LFE
Payload stage TWR is 1.88, DV is 742 m/s, cost is 11083 and mass is 5036kg.  It's a moderately heavy payload (5 tons).  The Callisto III satellites are only 2970kg.




Parts count for the launch is ~175.  Launch cost is 71.4k (a sizable fraction of my current funds).  Hopefully with Stage Recovery I can get about 1/2 of the booster / second stage costs back (about 21k estimated).  Which would bring the cost per launch down to about 50k.

Launch mass is 164 tons and the payload stage is only 5 tons (plus about 6 tons for the support module with the orbital engine / equipment).

Control is via (3) Advanced Inline Stabilizer reaction wheels plus a small inline reaction wheel at the top of the capsule (plus what is integrated into the Mk1 command pod).  Bottom of the booster stage has the (4) AV-T1 winglets.

Expectation is that during the boost phase, only SAS will be running and no attempts to correct rocket trajectory will be made.  Hopefully with the reaction wheels and tail fins, the SAS can keep the rocket vertical.  With 1541 m/s of DV in the booster stage (using twelve BACC SRBs), I'm hoping for a separation altitude of 10-15km.

Gravity turn will start around 30-40km of altitude.

Final check of the strutting, staging, position of equipment.



Ouch, expensive failure.  Not only was the craft mostly destroyed, but the launch pad was damaged for 128k repair costs.



Looks like I need struts between the stages rather then depending on that little connector.  Since I am going from a tri-symetry to quad-symetry stage, the struts are rather willy-nilly and probably not the best.  The important thing when doing struts along the vertical axis is that you have lots of V's and X's.

Since I can't afford to test launch again, I will need to go back to completing orbital contracts for funds.