Let There Be Fire

[Borb]

Well it's time for the return of Aurora III, a lot got done and more will come later. Thanks to defconh3ck, especially for some help with tasks on the surface. Next chapter might wind up delayed a week, I'll try to update next Friday, but it's going to be one of those weeks where something unreasonably large is due every day for some reason and I'm not sure how much time I'll have to work on this. In either case, enjoy this one for now and hopefully the next shows up on time:

Chapter 21: Picking Up the Trail

After another rest period, the crew took some more time showing the public around, even taking time to talk with various groups of school students while on the surface. Soon, they got back to putting on the EVA suit layers, this time wearing protective coverings for their eyes, nose, mouth, and ears as they disturbed the caked on regolith. Stepping outside once again, Perry proclaimed that it was a beautiful day, while Castelli retorted that he, “says that every day here,” as she made her own way out, followed by a laughing Petrikova. With everyone out and having the equipment they needed, the crew started their first task, which was setting up ESA’s soil experiment. Castelli took the lead on this task and with help from the other crew members, samples were collected from sites selected from the previous day's excursion and placed into a container they had brought along. This container was one of several, with each aiming to be sent out from the KSC to their respective destinations as soon as possible after landing. Other samples were collected during this point of the EVA as well, thoroughly covering the suits with regolith in the process. After this, the crew began the small trek towards Challenger’s descent stage. Passing the LRV for now and being careful to watch their steps, they eventually made it to their first stop at the descent stage. Aside from a sun-bleached appearance, the stage was still in remarkably good shape. Before taking a closer look, Perry stopped by the old flag, still standing, though a bit pale. With his navy roots, he gave it a hearty salute before taking a chance to mention their intentions with the site, saying, “This site is one of great historical importance and should be treated with the appropriate level of respect, but when Apollo 17 departed we were given an invitation in the words ‘God willing as we shall return.’ We have an obligation not to disturb more than we must, but there is an equal obligation to learn more from this amazing place and the things left behind.”

Being watchful of their moves, the crew got to work, poking voltmeters and other equipment all around the vehicle. While a majority of components had long worn out, either from lack of use or the glaring sun, a surprising amount was still potentially functional if provided power. Unfortunately, this was outside the scope of the expedition, but the data would be more than enough to help future missions to the Moon and beyond. Next on their list was to check up on a few deployed items from Apollo 17’s ALSEP. The various experiments provided some fairly similar results to the descent module, with many basic components still showing an ability to function, but not the devices as a whole. So far running on schedule, the crew wandered back to the east to give a similar lookover to the parked LRV before heading back to Hermes. While poking around at a component, Petrikova, with his hands full, asked, “Castelli, Perry, could you make a run to the auto parts store?” getting the response of, “Yeah, sure, we’ll get right on that.” Eventually, they arrived at the now expected conclusion. It certainly would not be moving under its own power again, but a lot was still in "OK" shape. Packing up, the crew took a lost look at the site before starting the walk back, with Perry apologizing to the rest of the crew that he “had forgotten the keys back at home.”

The crew took a last look at their flag site before walking down into the crater where Hermes sat patiently waiting. While the crew had been out, teams back on Earth had been hard at work observing Hermes during these dormant periods and, more recently, probing systems prior to their return to Voyager. The first window for ascent would only be a few hours after EVA-2, giving the reason for the preliminary work being started while the crew was still out and bringing the crew’s next rest period to after arrival and docking. Unfortunately, this slipped when navigation systems were giving some erroneous data, leading to the rest period slipping forward to before ascent. With some rest and zero complaints from the crew about spending more time on the Lunar surface, teams got back into the flow working towards lift-off. This time, all went well, Hermes sprung to life as the side-mounted engines lifted the spacecraft around a hundred feet off the Lunar surface and tilted her nose up a little before shutting down. Hermes followed her arc upwards and the four small thruster blocks worked to keep her attitude for a brief moment before the RL-10 kicked in bringing the crew from suspension in freefall to shoved into their seats as they hurdled up and away from Taurus-Littrow.

Hermes in a brief moment of freefall before beginning the climb to orbit.​

Eventually, Voyager would come into view, a distant spec growing into the ever-so-familiar shape as they neared. Voyager received Hermes with open arms as both RMS arms grabbed ahold of the vehicle and brought it to the APAS. Crews made quick work of getting the hatch open, receiving their surface landing counterparts in a similar manner, albeit with a bit more expression. While they held a return ceremony, giving Hermes her first tally mark, the orbital crew also showed the others pictures they had gotten of their landing site during EVA-2 as they awaited the first return window. The orange suits definitely stood out, even if all one could see were three small dots with even smaller white dots for helmets and backpacks. With the celebration over, the crew moved towards getting Hermes settled back in the payload bay and heading home, with Voyager firing up her OMS engines and pushing towards a Lunar departure, shutting them down, sending off the long-depleted drop tanks, and sending the crew on their long journey home. During the coast phase before their first reentry pass, the crew worked to finish relocating samples among other things into the orbiter’s lower deck for quick retrieval after landing and getting everything secured once again.

Over the course of the next few days, Voyager streaked across the sky multiple times slowing down bit by bit, making appearances the world over as she went. Eventually, the final pass would come and with one last fiery trail across the U.S., Voyager caught sight of the KSC once more. As she slowed down and approached, she was joined by NASA’s own T-38’s, running on either side for the ride down. Pulling out of the final spiral down, Voyager brought her gear down to the runway, throwing out her chute and coming to a calm rest as the ground crews raced to meet her. It wouldn’t take long, either, with the crew soon getting their chance to step back out into the Florida air, being whisked away almost immediately for a press event as ground crews got to work safing the vehicle, offloading the early removal items other, and other tasks in the hustle and bustle.

In the words of Commander Wright, it was good to be home.

 

[defconh3ck]

As always, you capture the imagination with such amazing imagery of the lunar surface and beyond - excellent stuff all around as always!!

 

[Borb]

I was correct, I barely even got to write anything this week. The good news is that I think everything went well, but I will be pushing the next chapter another week. Sorry again for that, it will forever elude me how professors manage to all have big things due all in one week and then nothing for two weeks after. As is tradition, though, I do bring a consolation gift from the pile of "images that aren't attached to any particular thing," so enjoy and I'll see you again in two weeks.

Voyager, still in coast configuration, while approaching the ISS​

 

[Borb]

Alright I'm not dead yet, but I think next chapter may be in the same boat as this one with finals and a couple big project conclusions coming up within the next two weeks, so Ill try to let you know again next Friday if there will be a delay (it seems very likely, but I'll try anyway). Anyway, this one is a look at what's ahead along with a few updates, though maybe not as well put together as I'd like. As is always, thanks to defconh3ck for help with the idea generation for all these little doodads and hopefully I'll exist again soon!

Chapter 22: Moving Along

With Aurora III back on the ground, the KSC went back to business as normal, with Voyager already moving back to regular operations. The mission had concluded but this was far from the end for Aurora, as the next mission was already on the books for later on in 2021. The next mission aimed to take a solid step towards what Lunar missions would normally look like. The first thing on the mission’s long list was a testbed for a Lunar communications relay, the Multiple Array Pathfinder. With the onset of Aurora, it was becoming readily apparent that there would be a large number of items left on the Lunar surface with need of communication. The DSN alone would likely have difficulty dealing with these all individually, so a relay network would be implemented to funnel down all of these communications to the DSN through a small number of satellites. First, however, the best method (or methods) for carrying these signals over both the short hop from the Lunar surface to orbit and the long haul down to Earth from there would need to be determined. MAP would fulfill this purpose by, as the name implies, carrying several methods of communication including a newer opportunity, a laser relay. In combination with a supporting optical ground station in California, this system would act as a pathfinder for far more than just Lunar communications. As far as test beds on the Lunar surface, Aurora IV would start that off as well, leaving behind two targets for MAP. Both would arrive via a cargo lander, with one set of communications equipment being built into the lander itself and into a deployable science package that astronauts would lay out on the surface. In addition to their added hardware, they would also possess conventional receivers/transmitters for the DSN to ensure regular operation as well.

To that end, the three cargo landers were coming along well. The first, Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus-derived lander, had gained the name Anser and had been chosen for Aurora IV, replacing the previously selected JAXA lander as it had run into issues with its mechanism that deposited payload onto the surface. Anser was already lining up for a demonstration mission in the early months of 2021 aboard another vehicle looking to make its own maiden voyage, ULA’s Vulcan. After both projects had their fair share of setbacks, with Vulcan initially targeting as early as 2019 for its first launch, a solid date was finally on the rails for early March. If no major setbacks occurred, Anser would get its second flight to the Moon in support of Aurora IV, with Vulcan getting a second flight in the meantime with a DOD mission. Should Vulcan backfire in the meantime, at least enough to cause concern, NASA had preserved the option to fly the spacecraft themselves as a backup. This would likely be aboard a Phoenix-Firelight 4, though this would disrupt the increasingly busy Complex 39, which had a crowded manifest for the end of the year already.

Moving back to JAXA, their lander was just on Anser’s heels, aiming for a test flight in 2022 aboard their very own H-II, despite their setbacks. The new schedule would hopefully line it up for a possible operational mission in support of Aurora V if all went well. The lander itself had come a long way from the start of its design process and possessed a particularly interesting method. As far as descent to the surface, nothing really wild would happen. The lander had an octagonal base that carried fuel, avionics, and other commodities/components and the payload would reside on a platform on top of this base. Once on the ground, however, this payload would need to get down to the surface so crews could access it. This was achieved by a sort of swinging basket that the payload sat on. When the lander had been safed, two pneumatic cylinders would extend to swing the payload out over the side and down to the surface. To keep the lander from either tipping or leaning, two of the lander’s legs on that side were longer, being stored upwards next to the payload prior to deployment unlike the other legs, which were stowed downwards. This lander, along with the Lockheed Martin skycrane lander, would be responsible for delivering rovers to the surface in the future.

Speaking of Lockheed's lander, their project had been lagging behind, relative to Anser’s simplistic design and JAXA’s head start. Their test flight was currently a very optimistic “NET 2022” and aiming to support Aurora VI if everything lined up just so. The project drew heavy inspiration from the skycrane that had previously carried the Curiosity rover, carrying the payload underneath on a pallet. Unlike that skycrane, though, the payload would not be suspended from cables near the surface, instead the two would remain rigidly attached until landing. The skycrane itself had no landing legs, would rely on the pallet for this asset and, after touchdown, the skycrane would release the pallet before flying off to a second, much less smooth landing for disposal.

In addition to the upcoming Lunar milestones for Aurora, other projects were advancing towards their own upcoming debuts. The first on the list was the upcoming attempt to displace an asteroid, the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, looking to soar off on a Firelight 4. The mission itself was gaining public attention rapidly, with Voyager, the Phoenix slated to carry the mission, preemptively gaining the nickname, “The First Starfighter” for sending a projectile at an interplanetary object from orbit. Another project on its way out was the wet-workshop ISS expansion. The stage's construction had been completed and was now making various trips in the name of testing, still eyeballing a 2021 launch, pending the results of all that testing. It may have been toiling away in the background, but this UCS represented a major hurdle standing in the way of larger ambitions.

 

[defconh3ck]

To that end, the three cargo landers were coming along well. The first, Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus-derived lander, had gained the name Anser and had been chosen for Aurora IV, replacing the previously selected JAXA lander as it had run into issues with its mechanism that deposited payload onto the surface. Anser was already lining up for a demonstration mission in the early months of 2021 aboard another vehicle looking to make its own maiden voyage, ULA’s Vulcan.

I love details like this - they make the universe feel so real and believable and I enjoy your attention to detail as always! Great stuff!

 

[Borb]

Alright, I held out hope as long as I could, but after moving out of college and finals, I am about dead. Therefore, as foreseen, the next chapter will be next week. Apologies again, but the semester is over so we should be back on track.

Now, the ceremonial entry from "images that aren't attached to any particular thing,"

Horizontal roll-out of a Phoenix stack from an FPF in the late evening.​

 

[Borb]

It's a slightly short one this week, but only because there was something that didn't quite fit on the end so I'm opting to put it as the star of the next chapter. Large thanks to defconh3ck for the little rover friend making an introduction here, it might have added a few fun items down the road.

Chapter 23: Delivery After Delivery

With the month of March settling in, the space coast was practically buzzing with activity on all fronts. Between arrivals and preparations for Aurora IV showing up, arrivals for other Phoenix-launched missions, and a test flight of both a Lunar cargo lander and a new rocket, it was becoming surprisingly difficult to juggle it all. One of the upcoming items for NASA was the launch of DART, whose Firelight-4 had just arrived ahead of schedule in order to free up room at ULA’s factory in Decatur, AL as they prepared to bring Vulcan into full swing. This arrival brought the total number of Firelight-4’s to four, now alongside two DAL’s and a spare incase one was needed for Aurora IV’s Anser. Needless to say, the relatively meager building housing these stages, lovingly referred to as the “Delta Daycare'' after the stages' heritage, was becoming quite crowded, having been built for three stages with just enough room to fit an extra, but not for long. With the future of the stage growing by the minute, an expansion was needed, but the location became a minor point of contingency. Not because neither side wanted to take on a new storage facility or expansion, but surprisingly the opposite. The KSC wanted it for closer storage and room for more DAL's and ULA wanted it for the extra floor space that could also be used for Vulcan processing. The odd ordeal ended quite painlessly in somewhat of a draw, with both sides getting a part instead. The existing KSC structure would get an extension to allow for a total capacity of four DAL’s and a normal stage for a spare, while ULA would get an enlargement to an upcoming expansion of their factory to use for storage of the stages prior to being shipped for flight. For ULA, this was a very welcome outcome as it had freed up the wrench Firelight had accidentally thrown into their future plans. As easy as it was to produce a modified version of the four-meter stage they were already making for Delta IV, the imminent retirements of both that rocket and the Atlas V were ideally going to clear the floor for Vulcan. Unfortunately, the existence and expansion of Firelight effectively meant that Delta IV would still partially stand in the way. The added storage space would allow Firelights to be made in bulk when there was a lull in the production of Vulcans as opposed to the current situation which had the factory switching back and forth all the time.

Around the same time, ESA and NASA had finally settled on a solution for science excursions in deep space and Lunar orbit. For a long time now, the agencies had been bouncing back and forth between a newer model of SpaceLab and a new MPLM-derived module. The final bounce landed on the latter, which now had a mock-up built and waiting to ship to the Johnson Space Center in Texas. Adding to the utility as a compact laboratory when attached to Phoenix’s APAS port, the tipping point had been the addition of an ATV derived service module that could be attached to the module’s aft via its own connection, allowing the stage to be left in free flight for months at a time to conduct more long term experiments before being retrieved at a later time. Moving forward with the design, the module’s shape had been given the addition of a long “neck” in order to attach to the recessed port Phoenix's payload bay, garnering the official nickname of “Goose” as it went. Given the new shape and the added capability of free-flight, the old MPLM’s would remain in their current state, continuing to service the space station. As these existing modules were aging, ESA proposed the possibility of launching the combined Goose and service module aboard their upcoming Ariane 6 which could be later retrieved by Phoenix, freeing up pad space at the KSC for other endeavors. As far as Aurora was concerned, this would be another pathfinding tool for the road to long-term activities in deep space.

Back with ULA, the first Vulcan was winding up its preflight tests and checkouts, soon making its way back from the pad in preparation for its first payload. Anser had finally made its way to the Cape, arriving just a little late after waiting on the arrival of one of its many sub-payloads. This late arrival was arguably one of the most important, a small rover, its main body standing around a foot-and-a-half tall. Named Hyperion and provided by Cantos Space Industries, the rover would serve as a demonstrator and test bed for Cantos’s vision for the future of Lunar surface infrastructure, including a small blade resembling that of a road grader, a regolith collection scoop fed by the blade, and a small nozzle off of the back to test additive manufacturing techniques using the collected regolith along with some other additives carried within the rover. Hyperion had a rather unique attachment to Anser, residing inside a box on the lander’s side near the base, the floor of which would lower the rover to the surface before letting it roll over its wheel-stops and off the platform. With this late arrival, the traditional aerospace industry chain of delays seemed to be nearing an end for this group of projects, with all components of the launch preparing to come together at last.

An Overview of the Hyperion Rover​

 

[defconh3ck]

Named Hyperion and provided by Cantos Space Industries, the rover would serve as a demonstrator and test bed for Cantos’s vision for the future of Lunar surface infrastructure, including a small blade resembling that of a road grader, a regolith collection scoop fed by the blade, and a small nozzle off of the back to test additive manufacturing techniques using the collected regolith along with some other additives carried within the rover.

My little friend made it! Hooray! Great chapter as always, and I'm excited to see the various deviations of MPLMs on the surface.

 

[Borb]

We're heading back to the Moon this time with a few new friends, all three coming up late, but making the wait worth it. Thanks again to defconh3ck for the addition of Hyperion, that little rover might literally pave the way for a lot more wild ideas.

Chapter 24: Rise of New Flames

Amongst the noise of the KSC, Vulcan had finally met Anser for the first time as it was lifted inside its fairing up to sit atop the five meter Centaur. With some final checks, the stack made its roll out towards the pad with an Atlas V looking on as it waited in the wings. For Atlas, much like Delta IV, the end was in sight and, fortunately, it would be an honorable retirement. Both vehicles would be wrapping up with mostly defense payloads, placing the expected retirement of both within the next couple years, slowly phasing out bit by bit as their successor brought itself up to speed. The start of this climb to operation was about to begin for Vulcan, standing tall at SLC-41 and setting sights on its ambitious first target. With any luck, trans-Lunar injection flights would be a simple task for Vulcan, but for now testing was the name of the game, taking ample time to test with the full vehicle and payload, proving just as useful to Anser’s team as they settled into working with their new, long-term, partners. Vulcan was of particular interest to the public, aiming to be the first private rocket with reuse in mind, though for the first several flights it would not fly with its anticipated detachable engine section. ULA wished its implementation could have come sooner, however their primary customer, the Department of Defense, had somewhat of a hesitancy to fly payloads with “flight-proven” engine sections. Fortunately, their second place customer, NASA, was eager to bring commercial industry along for the reusable ride, while exercising due caution of course. An agreement was forged to fly only new engine sections for the DoD until ULA had proven their point, giving them an excuse to build a small fleet of these engine sections which would later send many payloads off in the name of Aurora. In trial runs, the engines powering Vulcan’s first stage, the ever mysterious Blue Origin’s BE-4 engine, had certainly shown an aptitude for multiple firings, with a couple test-bed engines even reaching multiple concurrent flight-duration firings. These firings were not only for Vulcan, though. In their typical silent fashion, Blue had been sweeping together their own heavy launch vehicle. With NASA’s UCS giving ample proof that large stages could land propulsively and even have a small amount of cross range capability, BO had been putting together a vehicle with similar traits in its first stage, featuring large fins for atmospheric flight and their powerful BE-4 engine. Whether for means of protecting their “secret recipe” or simply avoiding negative attention bound to come from testing processes, not a whole lot more was known publicly, but government entities expressed excitement over the vehicle nonetheless. In any case, Vulcan had stepped up to be the lab rat for the new BE-4's and, as good as they appeared on the ground, all things change in flight.

After a hold and quick recycle, Vulcan made the very end of its first launch window, reaching for the sky under the watchful eye of a loitering WB-57. Continuing its path and leaving behind its quickly depleted solid boosters, the vehicle continued to climb and soon went quiet as the first stage went dormant, its job completed. The second stage slid out of the interstage and quickly got to work resuming the climb, soon ditching the fairings and revealing Anser to the vacuum. The massive Centaur V hurled the spacecraft to TLI, itself going silent as it released Anser and prepared to sail off into a heliocentric disposal orbit. For ULA and the Anser team, it was, so far, a glimmering success, with most objectives being achieved and only a few minor items of concern. The team behind Hyperion, however, were a little less positive. Upon post-release contact with the lander, data inbound from the small rover was unaccounted for. For hours, the teams would try everything they could to hear from the vehicle, but to little avail. Northrop's mission control was able to provide a small piece of relief, the rover was still drawing power from its host, Anser, implying that the vehicle was still functional. With their methods exhausted and a DSN ground station coming into line of sight, NASA gave their own shot at communicating with Hyperion by going through ground antennas just as they would once the rover was on the surface. Soon the three involved mission control centers across the US would erupt with cheers as the rover began responding to the DSN directly. A relief as it was, they still had to work out what happened. Fortunately, this did not take long, unfortunately, the conclusion reached by all parties is that somewhere early on in flight the data umbilical must have either come loose or flat out failed. A somewhat ambiguous result, but in either case, it would mean a change of plans for communications during the few days of coasting, having to leave instructions whenever DSN was able to find time to do so instead of working through Anser, with its dedicated downlink timeslots, but thankfully this would be a quiet time for the rover and wouldn’t last too long.

As the Moon drew nearer and nearer, Anser conducted several small burns to line up for its lightning-fast approach, placing itself on a trajectory just skimming the Lunar surface. Maintaining its speed, the approach did not take long, soon soaring low over the Lunar surface as its Star solid motor began to carry out its sole responsibility. With a flash, the motor came to life, bleeding off the immense approach speed while shifting its attitude around to tune its trajectory and hone in on the location of its landing site. In a mimicry of the Firelight-DAL, the motor shut down just as the lander came to a near stop over the surface, leaving the lander in a moment of suspension over the surface before being pulled downwards once more. With a sustained firing of its four smaller liquid motors, Anser gracefully lowered onto the surface, softly setting down onto the regolith at long last. Soon after touchdown, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter made its pass, looking intently for Anser, it became immediately clear just how well Anser had done, landing just under a hundred feet from the targeted location. With a solid footing on the surface and complete checkouts, Anser set off on its new career as a scientific asset on the Lunar surface. One of the first things to get underway would be the Hyperion rover. Originally intended for later deployment, the faulty data umbilical had moved it up the list with teams eager to get it back into an expected situation. The floor of the rover’s compartment worked as intended, lowering down to the surface from Anser’s side. Hyperion wasted little time, rolling off onto the surface and taking its first look around, soon rolling a short ways away to get images of Anser on the surface before coming back to the lander’s side to await its first tests in its new home.

Anser Conducting the Braking Maneuver While Hurdling Over the Lunar Surface​

 

[Borb]

The Cape's having a slow summer after the departure of Anser, getting ready to go right back into flight. Thanks to defconh3ck for the help with our upcoming friends mentioned here, they may warrant some art whenever I can motivate myself to do some more.

Chapter 25: Moment of Rest

With Anser up and away, NASA settled into what would be the longest gap between their launches in quite some time as they awaited the pile up of launches later in the year. The launch drought wouldn't go unused though, with crews crawling all over Complex 39 and other KSC facilities even before Vulcan had its first flight over at SCL-41. Work included everything from work on the lightning protection structures all the way down to work in the flame trenches, with LC-39B even getting the walls and floor of its flame trench gutted and replaced completely. This, of course, came with a fairly well timed funding bill, which set aside funds to repair or clean up a multitude of NASA facilities. The bill had been slowly churning for a while, but was spurred the rest of the way through after several incidents regarding ground equipment arose out of LC-39A and B. More specifically the incidents were almost completely from some of the more archaic equipment on the sites, holdovers from the Space Shuttle such as fuel lines and circuitry that was beginning to give out all over the complexes. Most of the work around the pads was either done or well underway, looking to be done and tested well in advance of the upcoming deluge they would face around November. ULA was the only one planned to break the gap with the Atlas V that had been patiently waiting for Vulcan’s departure, which soon made its own way out, hurling a commercial satellite out to geostationary orbit. There had been another Vulcan flight for the DoD rather optimistically set between the vehicle’s debut and Aurora IV, but their Alabama facility simply wasn't up to speed yet, resulting in the flight being delayed to after Aurora IV, donating its assigned core stage and Centaur V to the upcoming Lunar mission.

While Phoenix had been busy stretching its wings, General Dynamics had been toiling away in their pursuit of the beam builder that would construct the frame of the future MTV’s. Since being awarded the contract to revive the beam builder’s development program for a new purpose, GD had made their way through a few prototypes, all varying in complexity and purpose, with their work culminating with a more recent ground-based test rig. Still basic in function, this rig was able to weld together a single section of the box beams, sixty feet long and consisting of four steel plates. For now, it lacked the ability to feed more plates in, requiring manual positioning, but compared to the complexity of the beam builder’s two tool heads, this was a simple addition for later. GD was confident in the prototype’s abilities and seemed well on their way to proving them as well as moving on to the next step. Their next prototype, suitably named Hephaestus, would demonstrate a model closer to the final product, just scaled down, using smaller sections of ten feet to allow one Phoenix to carry all four pallets needed to feed each of the prototype’s four sides. The associated mission for Hephaestus would be a new experience in its own right. The ideal scenario would place two orbiters near each other for as much time as possible, with one carrying Hephaestus and another carrying the pallets. This would mean the day-long rendezvous would take up very precious time and could prevent the testing from being fully carried out. As it happened NASA had been looking for just such an occasion since their silent debut of the idea of launching multiple vehicles in the same window, but first, a test of the idea was warranted and NASA was already planning a new PTC mission, the first one in what seemed like ages. The primary goal would be to do a full joint flight using two uncrewed orbiters as crew was unnecessary for the mission’s goals and there wasn’t a very compelling reason to put crew on the test flight for a new mission profile. So far, both the PTC mission and Hephaestus were NET 2022.

While the MTV’s were reaching out to take their first step, the prelude to their journey was taking place. Mirage and Oasis had been setting up shop in their respective Martian orbits ever since their arrival in the latter half of 2020, beginning the process of scouting for landing sites all while delivering mountains of data on the Red Planet. Mirage was doing especially well, kicking off its career by identifying lava tunnel networks in the vicinity of known tunnel sites. The next step was coming along as well, with Lockheed Martin winning the contract to construct the many small surveyors that would be sent for a closer look at landing site options. Their winning design was certainly a departure from NASA’s recommended rover design, instead taking the form of a lander, named Trailblazer, that would handle most of the analysis equipment while packing a small plane to get a close overhead look at the area. The aircraft, called the Martian Aerial Reconnaissance for Landing Approval or MARLA, featured wings that were folded while stowed and a slender twin fuselage design allowing for, among other things, two propellers and, more notably, two cameras which would allow the small aircraft to provide binocular vision to their imagery. The duo would be a few years in development, but the data they hoped to provide would be invaluable as humanity looked to finally stretch its arms towards Mars.

 

[Borb]

With the slow summer over it's time to get back to flying some stuff. I will warn that the next chapter will likely be delayed a week as I very conveniently have something unavoidable pretty much all day that Friday. In any case, I'll leave you all to this one. Thanks to defconh3ck for some help with MAP and Anser, both of these are turning out to be fun and useful spacecraft.

Chapter 26: Booked Solid Pt.1

As October settled over Florida, NASA was getting ready to fly again and fly a lot. All three of the pads at LC-39 were getting ready to host launches in the wake of their summer of maintenance. First on the list was Aurora IV, setting up to start Aurora’s operational Lunar future off on solid footing. While LC-39C prepared to host the flight, Wayfarer-Vega was getting put together back at FPF-1, flanked on all sides by other pre-launch activities. FPF-2 was hosting DART and her carrier, Voyager-Altair, and The VAB was hosting Adventurer-Tauri’s upcoming mission to the ISS for crew rotation and resupply. The worrisome potential of a fourth launch carrying Aurora IV’s Anser spacecraft had fortunately faded with the successful first flight of Vulcan and subsequent analysis. The launch of the second Anser had resultantly been placed in the intended hands of ULA, in the process relieving some strain off of NASA’s facilities at the Cape.

The second Vulcan, handed over from the displaced DoD mission, now sat ready to send off the precursor to Aurora IV, S.S. Niel Armstrong, keeping with the convention established by Cygnus. As October prepared to tick over into November and with a week until Aurora IV, Vulcan lifted off and arced downrange, soon releasing the Centaur V to continue the journey. As the long flight uphill reached an end, the Anser was released, unfolding its circular solar arrays drifting off towards a new home. A few days later, in a near mirror image to its predecessor, the lander made a high speed pass over the Lunar surface, kicking on the solid motor to strip the velocity away before making another graceful touchdown with its four small liquid thrusters. Soon, the all-clear made its way down the comms and the greenlight was on for Aurora IV to give chase.

Wayfarer-Vega soon crept out of FPF-1 on the shoulders of the transporter, Resolute, carrying Stranger towards its next trip to the Lunar surface. Once upright on LC-39C, the preparations for launch began, holding only briefly to bring the stack back horizontal before placing it upright once again after the launch mount’s umbilical leaked by seating incorrectly. Finally, all was ready and Wayfarer-Vega took to the sky, carrying her crew on the usual ride of a lifetime, all the way to TLI where the engines fell silent and Wayfarer set off on its own as Vega turned to make the long journey home.

After their own multi-day cruise, filled with small experiments and “unscheduled activities,” known to the crew as “in-flight entertainment,” the capture burn brought them into an eccentric orbit over the Moon. This was a small break from the norm, but a pit stop here was in order for the MAP spacecraft tagging along. The time had come for the ambitious little spacecraft to part ways with its host. In the brief break, MAP shot out of its dispenser, flinging open its spring-loaded solar panels and sailing away to start its mission, trailblazing communications for the future of Lunar exploration and beyond. With a wave of goodbye, Wayfarer’s crew went back to wrap up their capture burn which brought them to rest in careful suspension above the Lunar surface. After a rest, the crew plucked the lander out of its harness in the payload bay, bringing it up to the orbiter’s docking port. With a bit more speed than previously, the lander was prepared and sent off with its three crew members, consisting of astronauts from the U.S., Canada, and Japan. A few burns later, Stranger and her crew settled gently down onto the Lunar surface. The mission’s commander, NASA astronaut, Julia Knight, hadn’t even made it out of her seat before calling out that the S.S. Niel Armstrong was in sight. It wasn’t long before her crewmates were at the window peering out at the lander as well.

With Stranger settled in, the crew prepared for their first outing on the surface, donning their EVA layers over their suits before climbing out of the forward hatch and down to the ground. They first took a quick look around their own vessel, passing information back to Houston by word and video. Once the brief survey was done, the crew got to work pulling their flags out of the lander’s external compartments before setting them up nearby. The setup was similar to that of Aurora III’s, but it would now place the Canadian flag along with the other four. The plaque placed in the center of the flags would this time be simply inscribed, “In pursuit of those who came before and those who will come again.” Once the somewhat short ceremony was completed, the trek over to their companion cargo lander began. They had managed to get quite close, taking very little time to reach its side before they were able to climb up the ladder on one of the landing legs and open up the door on its side. From here, they extended a small boom from the lander’s interior which had a winch on the end. With that out, Knight stepped inside to grab the first item bound for the surface, some reflectors similar in function to those left by Apollo. Once hooked up to the winch they were hoisted outside and let down a short distance to the ground where they were unhooked and prepared to be set around the lander. Their first deployments were soon completed and the crew walked back to Stranger for a rest period. With the Anser’s winch deployed and successfully tested, more deployments were ready to go, but at this point, the EVA had gone on for quite a while. The crew did tidy up some things around both landers, getting ready for their next EVA before getting back into Stranger, doffing their EVA layers, as well as their TrACES suits and taking a well earned break.

 

[Borb]

A week late as foretold and unfortunately a little short because I've been too busy scheming so hopefully I can make up for that in the near future. In any case I'm back to it, so thanks to defconh3ck for witnessing said scheming and ill leave you with this;

Chapter 27: Booked Solid Pt.2

While the surface crew took their break, their orbital counterparts juggled several tasks. Primarily, they worked to communicate with MAP, doing some testing with the spacecraft’s wide range of communications systems, even conducting the first use of its laser link as a relay, passing a signal from a ground station through to a receiver/transmitter module in Wayfarer’s payload bay. Other tasks included monitoring of smaller deep-space research projects as well as imagery of the surface for use in research or determining future landing sites, of particular interest was the far side, which was being surveyed for a near-future excursion.

Back on the surface and after their rest, the crew got right back into EVA activities, moving to put their suits back on after taking some time to handle some smaller tasks in the lander. Today’s goal was to wrap up surface deployments and prepare to leave after another rest period. With suits on and checked, the trio stepped outside once more and walked to the waiting cargo lander. First in line for deployment was the Surface Array Package, designed to work with MAP as well as conventional DSN antennas. SAP was first lowered to the surface by Knight before the remaining two carried it several feet away and began pulling off its various small modules. Much care was taken to keep regolith from settling into SAP’s devices, even going so far as to have the cables pre-attached back on Earth, making deployment somewhat difficult as the crew had to stop a few times to keep cabling from getting tangled. These cables ran from SAP’s sub-devices back to the hub they had been carried in and then from there back to the Anser from there, which supplied power and data. The other deployments, consisting of seismometers, a couple cameras, and even a test for a “micro-observatory” which aimed to observe the Earth and objects that passed close by, albeit in somewhat low quality due to its size, but it was a test after all. With only a few hiccups, the deployments were eventually completed and the crew once again tidied up the area dusting off regolith which had been thrown around accidentally on the deployments before heading back to the lander for some last-minute sample collection after which they wrapped up their surface stay with some projects in the lander and a final rest.

As they slept, the surface deployments worked on, making their first calls through the DSN and, for a few moments, MAP as they began their assigned tasks. After their rest, the ascent preparations began and soon Stranger took to flight, racing to meet Wayfarer as it appeared over the horizon. Several adjustment burns and a few orbits later, Stranger came safely to rest in Wayfarer’s arms and the crew was together again. Their return to Earth would send the orbiter blazing over the Pacific as it headed towards the California desert, setting down at Edwards AFB, closing out the long journey.

Back at the Cape, Adventurer-Tauri was readying for a flight to the ISS, while a bit overshadowed by the other launches happening around it, the mission would continue the station’s important work with new research items and equipment. Additionally, this flight would also carry some of the structural pieces that would eventually support the upcoming UCS expansion, which now bore the name Capella. For the most part, this delivery contained the primary braces, which would later be further reinforced by additional smaller braces. The remainder of the delivery was the beginnings of the electrical and data connections that would be bridged up to the new module. As for Capella herself, testing had effectively wrapped up and the stage was now on the way to Florida for launch preparations, aiming to finally meet the ISS in early-to-mid 2022. Until then, the station would prepare for its arrival with a new series of spacewalks to install structural additions and other supporting equipment. With the inevitable excessive power draw Capella was bound to add to the station, more generation was also soon needed. With the success of the new roll out arrays employed by the Phoenix orbiters, an additional segment would be added to each side of the station’s existing truss, adding four new arrays only slightly smaller than the existing ones. Adventurer-Tauri soon took to the skies as DART waited in the wings and LC-39C was already getting ready for its next mission, the former of which was now up to the plate.

Voyager had quite a few accolades from her already storied career, but none quite stuck as well as her upcoming role in lofting DART. Though its validity was questionable depending on who one asked, National Geographic had placed the upcoming flight at the forefront of its latest magazine release, further amplifying Voyager’s previously gained reputation as “The First Starfighter.” On the heels of Adventure-Tauri, Voyager-Altair made way for its pad, but the flight would have to wait if only for a little while for some incoming weather.

 

[Borb]

Well, what has been the most dense groupings of flights so far, it'll soon be time to move on to some other fun things. Thanks to defconh3ck for some help with Hephaestus, and I promise I won't slam Proxima into the salt flats.

Chapter 28: Booked Solid Pt. 3

As the weather broke, Voyager-Altair wasted little time on the ground, taking off with a cloudy sky still overhead. Though out of sight from the ground after punching through the clouds, a NASA Gulfstream jet kept all eyes on the ascending vehicle. Erupting into flame as the LRB’s pulled away, Voyager-Altair continued, eventually parting ways as the main engines quieted down. As Voyager settled into her targeted destination in MEO, various mission control groups worked to refine DART’s launch time using the current positioning of the orbiter. Soon the clock was set, T+2 hours and 38 minutes. Voyager’s crew moved quickly, angling the spacecraft and its Firelight out of the bay and verifying its current state with ground. As the clock hurriedly ticked down, Voyager released the pair and her crew watched as they drifted away into the black. When the clock finally hit zero, the world watched as a distant flash indicated the beginning of DART's departure burn from Earth. The dot zipped away into the distance, eventually dimming as the RL-10 shut down and a signal came back indicating that DART had separated. This was shortly followed by a somewhat delayed feed from Firelight as the spacecraft floated away and went out of sight as the Firelight rotated to depart for its disposal orbit. Her end of the mission completed, Voyager made her return home, setting down at KSC some time later.

Alongside Voyager’s return, a new sight rolled out of Michoud, the freshly named, UCS Proxima. The massive, winged core stage carefully made its way to a waiting barge bobbing and weaving around obstacles along the way. Finally on the barge and beyond fully secured, the long and slow journey to the Cape began, arriving a few days later to the usual abundance of press coverage. Unfortunately, KSC was just a pit stop on Proxima’s current journey and the new stage rolled straight past the VAB towards the SLF. Patiently awaiting the stage sat NASA 988, one of the two C-5 Galaxy carrier aircraft in NASA’s fleet. As this aircraft would not be carrying a Phoenix, 988 had been given the addition of an adapter to host the behemoth stage. With the assistance of two crawler cranes, Proxima was lifted onto 988. Her appearance atop the aircraft was precarious at best, sitting far enough forward that the pilots could see her nose out of the window. Existing high confidence in the pair’s airworthiness didn’t stop crews from doing a few low and high speed taxis up and down the SLF before departing for Edwards, though. Once comfortable with the arrangement, 988 and Proxima took off at last and made way for the Mojave.

Only a few hours later, the duo made a low pass of the runway before circling around and coming down softly onto the scorching runway at Edwards, slowly decelerating before pulling off and heading up to park. Once again Proxima would be lifted by large mobile cranes as 988 was backed away. For now the two would be sequestered away in hangars, both for inspection purposes, mainly. After all, the cross-country flight was a captive test flight on its own. Proxima was also due a special makeover while she awaited more flights. What had started out as an internal joke when it became known that the stage would overhang so much on the back of the C-5 had evolved into an actual plan, painting a shark mouth nose art onto the stage’s heat shield for the ALT’s. For now, though, both vehicles would take a rest from the lime-light as they readily awaited their next chance in the air.

Back at the Cape, eyes skipped right over the intermediate launches and went straight to PTC-5, the first fully joint mission. Even as just a test flight, it was quickly garnering interest, both for the obvious reason and for a new one. So long as there was going to be at least one orbiter up without a crew, NASA had decided that it was the perfect opportunity to test another upcoming idea, TUFROC tiles. The previous decade of study regarding the tiles’ use in covering Phoenix’s heat shield was approaching a practical limit, the next step had been whittled all the way down to a flight test. Not the whole heatshield would be replaced, of course, but a few select positions around the orbiter’s belly and a few would even appear on a UCS. This next step would hopefully validate all these years of looking and open the door to the future use of the tiles on the whole heat shields. Adventurer and Vega had been stepped up to the plate for this task, flying the upcoming mission with the untouched Drifter and Polaris, who would serve as a sort of control group. In addition to the new secondary test objective, the mission had narrowed down to May of 2022 where a window had opened for the two orbiters to work together. Houston was also well into getting ready, running more and more simulated missions along with the flood of contingencies that came along with them.

While the forerunner mission approached the launch date, Hephaestus was getting ready as well, stepping up to increasingly ambitious ground tests. Recently the beam builder had managed to weld a small beam section together inside a NASA vacuum chamber as it prepared for the real deal in space. Pending mission success, General Dynamics was already plotting more orbital tests involving Hephaestus, including longer test beams as well as EVA tests to attach components to completed beams. For now, though, the next tests were all to prepare the device for flight, planning to visit multiple NASA facilities in addition to those tests performed by GD themselves. If all went well on PTC-5, Hephaestus was expected to fly just after the start of 2023, though GD, rather optimistically, believed it could be sooner. GD was also well into testing of their prototype pallet system that would carry and load the beams’ panel sections into Hephaestus and were in the process of constructing the four that would be delivered to NASA along with the ten feet long test panels prior to flight. Along with the upcoming wet-workshops, this test flight would be a large step towards clearing a major hurdle to MTV construction.

 

[Borb]

It is double trouble day here apparently, we've got two sets of two, all in one go. This one is slightly shorter, it's been a busy week or two and I'm going to go ahead and say that the next chapter is going to be a week late since I'm going to be in and out next week and then moving back into college after that so I'm going to pre-emptively pump the brakes a little. That's all I've got though, so thanks to defconh3ck, whose godchild of sorts is getting a test flight this chapter.

Chapter 29: Double Vision

With a little time passed, Proxima and 988 met again to continue the new stage’s testing. Though somewhat already done, the cross-country flight wasn’t enough on its own for captive tests. Once back together, the two followed in a mirror image of the path taken nearly a decade before by Kite. The two carried out more high-speed taxi tests for a couple days before finally getting back into the air, doing loops around Edwards as well as flying a few brief maneuvers that placed the stage in a similar path to future flights, which was certainly no easy task for the considerably more conventional aircraft carrying Proxima. Over the span of about a week, the pair worked up to mock runs of the eventual ALT, flying over the wide open space available at White Sands, where the lines painted in the sand still partially remained from 988’s last visit. Before Proxima could be allowed to touch those sands though, another round of inspections was unfortunately in order and the pair once again settled into their temporary abodes back on the ground.

Soon enough, though, the pair were at it again, being rejoined on a clear morning in the Mojave. As the sun rose over the horizon, 988 and Proxima set off, heading east to pay a last visit to White Sands. Once again the salt flat was filled with visitors, perhaps even more than for Kite’s first attempt. With a graceful struggle, 988 lined up for release after doing a test approach, finally pulling the pins. Proxima, sluggish as she may have appeared, wasted little time in pulling away, moving to follow her path as soon as she was clear. 988 did a gentle dive to clear the area as Proxima began to descend as well. With chase planes fighting to stay with her, Proxima fell just as much as she flew, dropping swiftly towards the painted runway. Her unusual flight profile definitely sparked concern, but it was soon put to rest as Proxima pulled her nose up with an almost surprising amount of speed. The gear came down, locked, and was soon bearing the weight of the stage as it made contact with the runway. Two small drogue chutes deployed, one from each of her combined winglets and rudders, and the nose settled down onto the ground as well, leaving behind a puff of sand and smoke as Proxima continued down the runway. She took her time slowing down, stopping well after a Phoenix would have, but this was nothing unexpected, her seven engines alone brought a lot of momentum in need of release. Even still, Proxima came to an eventual halt and was quickly met by her ground crew. After a while of waiting, the all clear was given and the visitors were allowed to approach the mammoth aircraft. Crews were so far overwhelmingly pleased with the performance so far, jokingly citing the worst damage as being peeled paint on the nose art from the sandy set down.

Proxima stayed at White Sands overnight, getting a few more in depth inspections before setting back off. With the morning sun rising, Proxima met with 988 again, which had flown out in the early hours of the day from Edwards, and was lifted atop the fuselage. With the encouragement of a much smaller audience, the two lifted off together, leaving behind a cloud of dust as they set off for Edwards to tie a bow on the atmospheric testing. There a few more days went by before Proxima stepped back out into the open air, this time departing Edwards for the final time, venturing back to the Florida coast for a more permanent home. With wheels down at the Cape, Proxima’s next objective was now underway, the stage was now on the road to her first orbital flight, which would also be her first operational flight. It was to be a meager ISS cargo flight, again supporting the upcoming expansion, but it would be a landmark mission in the long-time effort to restore some of Phoenix’s lost performance after the flight of Copernicus. This mission was still a few weeks out, but what was upcoming in the near future was PTC-5, which was soon approaching flight.

The twin stacks were assembled and ready to go, but a couple tasks still lay between them and flight. Most notably, a wet dress rehearsal going all the way to and, hopefully, including Phoenix main engine start. At this point, the test was aimed more at procedure than anything else, looking to verify that parallel countdowns were understood enough for the mission. In preparation, the stacks rolled to the pad aboard their transporters, leaving enough of a gap to prevent damage to the tracks. Given the occasion, NASA’s miniature air force of chase aircraft was out in full effect, aiming to get every picture they could as the pair made their ascensions to their respective launch pads. About a day later, the clocks started less than a minute apart and, eventually, the vessels began to breathe their steady streams of oxygen from vents all over. It took a quick recycle as teams took time to deal with a communications issue on the ground side, but soon enough the first clock hit T-8s and a low roar rushed from Adventurer’s three RS-25E’s and the stack underwent the characteristic lean. Thirty seconds later, Drifter followed, mirroring Adventurer’s performance adding a second rain cloud to the air. With the test concluded, the pair erupted with sound once again, dropping their pressure as they prepared to offload their propellant and move on flight in a few days after crews got their time to check the test’s results. Strange as it had seemed years ago, the first joint flight was now next up on the list.

 

[Borb]

Kind of a shorter one this week, my senior design course has started of running, so I've been very occupied for about the last week and a half. That and I didn't want to get the next thing started only to cut it off midway through, so it all works out. Thanks to defconh3ck for encouraging the subject of this chapter and the mission it predates.

Chapter 30: Ballet of Sisters

With the wet dress now behind them, Adventurer and Drifter now sat prepared for their flights. No surprises arose in the test’s wake and the pair remained at the pads, so, with everything back in place, the clocks started once more. Unfortunately, LC-39B had little interest in letting go just yet, ending the first count early when a data cable, which was later deemed to have been pinched in a previous launch or test, gave out when it was moved by strongback retraction. The second count didn’t even make it that far, ending this time on a particularly stubborn hydrogen leak. Finally, with several statements of “third time’s the charm” from launch controllers, the first clock hit zero, seeing Adventurer-Vega rise from the pad’s restraints and sail off into the sky. On the adjacent LC-39A, Drifter-Polaris waited eagerly, soon leaping off the pad as well in a thunderous pursuit of the distant glow of engines far above, carefully keeping plenty of distance from their plume. In the first of many landmarks of this flight, the trailing Drifter-Polaris successfully caught the closest footage of LRB separation, shaky as it may have been, as a camera pointed out of Drifter’s flight deck windows keenly observed the event. Additional views of the “falling” LRB’s and their jettisoned engine sections were captured by various engineering cameras around the stack as they passed by in the background after Drifter-Polaris’s own set had separated.

The rest of the ascent passed smoothly and eventually the distant light seen by Drifter’s flight deck window camera quickly faded away and soon her own engines went dark. Now flying free, proximity operations were already in action, with both orbiters making burns to both circularize their orbits as well as bring them closer together. It would only take a few orbits for the orbiters to go from a gleaming dot in the distance to being just under a mile away. While not the first time two orbiters had been in space at the same time, it was the first time they would interact with each other like this. With this new experience, their first day was spent “dancing” together. The orbiters took turns spiraling around each other, backing away before approaching once again, and generally allowing ground controllers to get a better feel for the arrangement. One of the larger milestones in this process was the test of a newer system, which would keep the orbiters flying in formation automatically through use of laser distance measurement systems and small pulses of the translational and rotational thrusters, allowing work to be done between the vehicles much more easily. As day two arose, the next phase came along, grappling. While the contactless system was certainly convenient, it came with the price of propellant and added safety risks, so unless it was necessary, the orbiters would instead anchor to each other with one of each orbiters’ robotic arms grappling onto a base point on the other orbiter. The pair lined up, nose-to-tail, and Drifter slowly approached, eventually extending an arm to grab onto Adventurer, which did the same soon after and both orbiters relaxed their respective attitude control systems.

With this, the last major item on the list could be ticked off, starting with a mobility test. The unoccupied arm of Adventurer reached out and snaked around between the two orbiters, ensuring that the arms could still be effective even in the limited space between the orbiters. With a few hours of this slow and careful process behind them, Adventurer finally reached for an empty pallet brought up by Drifter and soon locked into place on the pallet’s grapple point. As all was still looking good, Drifter released her hold on the pallet and Adventurer maneuvered it back across with even more care, placing the pallet in her own bay. As the second day came to a close, all latches had secured the pallet and all else was still in check. With the all clear, the orbiters released each other and, with a quick puff of their thrusters, began to drift apart, pulling their arms back to their resting position as they went.

The orbiters’ return to Earth would not be quite as close as their departure, with Drifter scheduled to come home first and Adventurer arriving a day later. Both were targeting a landing in Florida, with Adventurer holding Edwards AFB, over in California, as a backup if Drifter was somehow not able to vacate the SLF that quickly. As Drifter returned in the evening, the trained eye could also see the dot that was Adventurer sailing past, keeping careful watch over her sister below. Drifter made a safe landing, albeit a little bumpy as the orbiter fought off a somewhat surprise crosswind. With no issues leaving the SLF, Adventurer took the plunge next streaking across the sky to a much smoother landing, soon also heading off the runway.

 

[Borb]

I hope classes have idled out a bit, but for now, I do believe it is finally Capella time. Thanks to defconh3ck for being the litmus test for Capella while she's been in the works.

Chapter 31: New Arrival

On the heels of PTC-5’s landing, teams were well at work cataloging the results as the orbiters were whisked away to be checked for, among other things, any serious traces of plume impingement from the close-up operation of thrusters as well as for the performance of the new tiles, which were visibly in good health. So far, it looked like another seemingly small, yet highly successful step towards MTV construction.

Elsewhere, other teams were making their own progress towards Mars. More specifically, the lander was beginning to make an appearance. So far it had only shown itself in drawings, animations, and somewhat ambiguous scale models, but now construction on a full size mock-up of the crew lander’s ascent stage was underway in Houston for assistance in fleshing out the real lander’s internal equipment. While only a small part of the lander, the shell for this mock-up alone was quite massive. The descent stage was a somewhat different story, not getting its own mock-up, but plenty of smaller prototypes covering anything from ascent stage launch rails to scaled down landing gear impact tests. The engines for both stages were still solidly on the drawing board at the moment, but test articles were visibly on the horizon with a test cell already being set up for both the hydrolox descent engines and the hypergolic ascent engines in Mississippi for hot fire testing under the watchful eyes of Ursa and the Earthbound boosters, which, among other things, were still in pursuit of extending reuse limits.

Meanwhile in Florida, another major step was about to take place. After years of study, modifications, and mock-ups of its own, the ISS was about to host the first UCS wet-workshop and its largest single expansion. Given the stage's strange purpose, an equivalently strange vehicle configuration was necessary for UCS Capella, which had been set up in the midst of her four boosters in the VAB. Capella alone was well out of line in terms of appearance, having a permanently affixed nose cone barrel and what most closely resembled a shuttle-proposed aft cargo carrier sitting atop the barrel serving as a "workshed" instead. Additionally, protective covers for cables, attachment points, and RMS grappling points, among other things, covered the stage’s exterior to such a degree that deliberate effort had to be put into the design to leave sufficient room for a name to be painted on. Perhaps the only component to not undergo major modifications was the fairings to cover the prebuilt workshed module at the front, which of course only flew once, during the test flight of Leviathan and on top of an upper stage. To cap it all off her booster arrangement was in an X shape as opposed to Phoenix’s typical off-center arrangement and given this arrangement along with the fairings, the Phoenix flying in support of the initial installation, Wayfarer, was flying separately with a much more conventional UCS, Polaris.

While Capella finished cleaning up in the VAB, Wayfarer-Polaris departed for the pad, bringing with her her arms, extra tools, two EVA suits, and a whole host of other supporting equipment. Wayfarer-Polaris intended to add another record to the pile, largest EVA in spaceflight history, as two of her crew would join the ISS astronauts in order to aid the long process of bolting down the massive stage. Being a much more typical flight, Wayfarer-Polaris didn’t take long to clear out, soon reaching the ISS after a day-long coast. While Capella worked her way out to the pad, Wayfarer worked with the station to prepare for her arrival, by first temporarily donating her arms to the station. The arms were moved one at a time, grappling onto the station and releasing from their base points aboard Wayfarer. With checkouts going well, Capella climbed into the sky below, dropping her LRB’s and, eventually, her fairings with fortunately little trouble. The free-flying core stage had come prepared to orbit, with a fairly basic thruster system to get her to the station and close enough to be grabbed as well as a reserve of power that could last several days under coasting conditions. This feat was achieved mostly by modifying an “off the shelf” satellite bus from Boeing to fit into the front of the workshed module, so while it had lost any resemblance of its origins, all of the components and systems were present somewhere under the surface.

Capella would take her time reaching the station, trailing the station as she offloaded excess propellant and flushed her tanks with nitrogen. A breathable atmosphere would have to wait, though, as most of the internal refitting work would be done in vacuum conditions inside the stage. The TrACES suits and their overlayer for this internal work were already present at the station along with overlayers for EVA use as well, all brought up previously by another mission. For this assembly, however, the older EVA suits were still in use and the TrACES suits would have to wait a bit more before becoming the suit of choice for EVA’s. As Capella came into view, astronauts aboard the station and Wayfarer were preparing to step outside and the arms raised into an idle position. The spacewalkers made their way outside and waited off to the side as Capella drifted ever closer. While astronauts had worked with a UCS up close before, the context of the ISS in the foreground made it altogether more impressive and concerning. After about a half-hour of drifting closer, Capella finally slipped in reach and further slowed her snail’s pace to a halt. Slowly the first arm raised into position, sliding at an almost agonizingly slow pace towards the grapple point and eventually contact was made. The other arms followed one at a time and soon Capella was fully in the station’s grasp. The worrying part was over and the four astronauts moved in a bit as the arms crept Capella towards her mounting points. With an inch left until on those points the astronauts, in two pairs, went up on either end of the stage to help guide in the last little bit. With only a couple hours on the clock, Capella came to rest atop the station and the crew worked to secure the multiple mounting points. In the end, only two bolts were unable to be installed due to misalignment, but it was quickly decided that it could be fixed by partially reassembling the struts on a future EVA, but for now there were plenty of other bolts to hold Capella safely and they were left for now. The workshed module had seated correctly on the adapter previously placed on top of the Harmony module and once the vestibule had been pressurized, the hatch was opened giving the crew a little more room to stretch their legs. With Capella installed, Wayfarer recovered her arms from the station and headed for home, bringing the mission to an end with wheel-stop at the SLF.

 

[Borb]

Back with Capella and some other fun this time, next couple of weeks might suck, but I should still be here next time. For no, though, thanks to defconh3ck for helping with pretty much all of these in some fashion, especially the suits, I'm still having a blast with them.

Chapter 32: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

The first week with Capella was a busy one, consisting of three EVAs to finish up completing exterior cable connections and removing dozens of protective launch covers. Work was continuing inside as well, as crew members got everything situated in the workshed module. The IVA suits were placed in the module and checked, ventilation was checked, tools and early materials were moved into the prep area of the module, and so on. The first IVA was to occur within the next month once everything was sorted out. This first IVA would be quick and, hopefully, simple, the team of two astronauts would first have to get into the tank to begin with as the structure of the tanks themselves had gone unaltered. This would be done by first opening the hatch into the LOX tank, which now led to nothing but a nose cone which would need to be cut out before they could enter. A new tool had made its way to the station just for the occasion, a tool similar in appearance to a compact circular saw, which had a few attachments, but for this task it was a simple cutting blade. Perhaps the most notable difference in the tool from its terrestrial counterpart was, like other tools built for use by a space suit, its shape, as it had been built to fit in and be operated by the bulky gloves on the suits, but another big difference was a sort of spark catcher. While wholly unnecessary on Earth, the sparks posed numerous unwanted hazards aboard the station and needed to be kept from flying everywhere, especially back at the astronaut operating the tool. Of course there was no way to get the sparks coming out of the other side of the cut surface, but these were of much less consequence since the tools few uses in the conversion process were almost always for opening holes into tanks, sending those sparks into a yet to be accessed area. Given that the jagged cut surface was a serious hazard to puncturing the liner that would cover the tank walls later as well as the astronauts’ suits now and the fact that grinding down the edge would cause way more sparks the solution was to have a rubber buffer placed over the edge, concealing the hazard as well as smoothing out imperfections in what was intended to be a neat circular hole. If all went well, the rest of the IVA would be spent checking out the interior of the LOX tank and installing a couple temporary work lights. Another big difference between EVAs and IVAs was the use of a hose and cable combined into a tether to supply oxygen, power, and data for the suits. This was done mainly because of the passages into the tanks, while they were large enough to accommodate a backpack on the suits, they certainly did not help mobility in most cases during testing with the mock up made out of Copernicus. This would impart some growing pains, but in the training pools at JSC, it didn’t seem to take much to get used to given the usual use of tethers in EVAs already. The first few IVAs would be a little slow paced to make sure this all got figured out, but the tasks within them were still essential.

In the Mojave below, the first test article for the Boreal engine had arrived in Jackass Flats, former home of the NERVA test campaign, for evaluation. The engine had previously been celebrated upon completion, the first fruit of a groundbreaking international cooperation, but had now been sent off to achieve its purpose. Testing was to be an excruciatingly slow process, but useful nonetheless, starting with the lowest subsystem tests that would eventually migrate up to larger and larger subsystems until full unit tests were to finally begin. This was a process expected to take a couple years if not more and given its delay already, concern was high for the engine’s success. Hope was high too, though, smaller prototypes had yielded the promised results, albeit with all of the typical trouble that comes with a new engine in the process. Along with the engine’s arrival to the Mojave came an announcement as well, a test flight for a later iteration of the engine, which would fly aboard an Atlas V which had been reserved by NASA. For ULA, this, rather optimistically, reserved vehicle was about to prove itself to be minor pain as the slowed progress of the engine was going to push the Atlas V's final flight farther and farther beyond the intended retirement date, leaving them to keep it around amidst the full-swing Vulcan operations. Regardless, the deal was struck and the Centaur III was to play a pivotal role in the process. Having hydrogen as a propellant meant that a dedicated stage for the engine was unnecessary if the engine could tap into that. Resultantly, the engine would be mounted in the fairing along with some support hardware, including deployable radiators among other things, with its nozzle facing forwards. The flight profile would see the Centaur III carry itself into orbit like normal before flipping directions to let the Boreal engine take the role of propelling the stage around in its various tests. This would have to come later, though, as the engine would take time to test and later models, while they were under construction, would slow down to learn from the test stand.

On the other end of Russian spaceflight, the usual classified payload was about to be on its way to space. The sky over Plesetsk was illuminated by the glow of an ascending Soyuz heading downrange towards a sun-synchronous orbit. At the start, it was just that, a typical classified launch. Very little outside communication, launching from a military-oriented site, intelligence agencies around the world watching casually from afar, and so on. Soon, however, the relatively low-profile air of this launch would shatter. The Russian military would remain silent, but those watching intently enough would not take long to notice that things were not going so well. It wouldn't be long before it was determined that the spacecraft launched that night had missed its orbit by a large margin and questions scrambled through backchannel chatter as to what had caused this anomaly. Further observation would reveal that, whatever it was supposed to be, the Russian military had soon seemed to have abandoned it. The spacecraft was not observed to have deployed anything, no orbit changes were detected, and it seemed to just drift along. Most went back to their usual activities, just a failed satellite they couldn't do anything with, nothing more. But where many intelligence agencies saw a simple failure, one saw a once in a lifetime opportunity.

 

[RanulfC]

Back with Capella and some other fun this time, next couple of weeks might suck, but I should still be here next time. For no, though, thanks to defconh3ck for helping with pretty much all of these in some fashion, especially the suits, I'm still having a blast with them.

Chapter 32: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
<snip> But where many intelligence agencies saw a simple failure, one saw a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Don't do it man, stealing someone else's satellite is always a bad idea

Randy

 

[Borb]

I was correct the next couple weeks did suck, so it's a short one today with an update on some newer hardware. Thanks to defconh3ck, especially for help with brainstorming the relay networks a while back, there will be a lit of business for the Firelight 4 in the near future as a result.

Chapter 33: Foundations of the Martian Armada

The public attention was well focused on the transfer vehicles and landers, but more hardware would supersede these components on the journey to the Red Planet. More specifically, better communication networks and scout landers. The former was now in full swing, as MAP had greatly satisfied NASA in its pathfinding work. Upon the basis it had laid out, two relay networks were being designed and built, the Mars Relay Network (MRN) and Lunar Relay Network (LRN). The design of the spacecraft would vary greatly between the two networks, but they still shared many similarities. In both networks, the idea was the same, to reduce work for the DSN by funneling communications down through a single satellite as opposed to dealing with each spacecraft, rover, and lander separately. Additionally, both would utilize Firelight 4 for their departures from Earth and both networks would also have a similar composition, a high up belt of around four smaller relays accompanied by larger spacecraft in a highly eccentric orbit over each pole that would work between the belt relays and the DSN as well as handle the few crafts on or near the poles of their respective celestial bodies. The spacecraft weren’t the only things receiving development though, the DSN itself was getting upgrades in the form of additional antennas as well as the addition of laser ground stations that would be able to work with the LRN as well as other spacecraft closer to Earth. In line with the latter part of that, plans were now in place for future TDRS replacements to carry laser communications equipment and bring the high-speed transmissions to future LEO spacecraft, Phoenix, and the ISS.

The wave of spacecraft that would follow the MRN was moving along as well, the aircraft part of Lockheed’s landers had advanced into the testing phase, gaining a more terrestrial prototype which had been cobbled together from the combined frame of two of their Stalker drones. This prototype was already making major strides, quickly graduating to terrain relative navigation, flying autonomously around its Mars-like testing home in the Mojave. Next up on the list was the ability to optimize its path to focus on areas of interest during its limited flight time, which would be identified pre-flight by the Trailblazer lander. Trailblazer was also coming together, though with a bit less field testing, excepting drones being employed to assist in more terrain relative navigation for its landing process. Being more “conventional,” it was undergoing a similarly traditional slow and steady approach in a clean room. What was out of the ordinary was the quantity, dozens of these spacecraft and their hitchhiking aircraft were to make way for Mars, something very rare for spacecraft, much less landers. This was a big driver behind Lockheed choosing a more stationary design than a rover, but it was still a major challenge. Regardless, they were determined to make it work and onwards it marched as NASA worked on preparing on their end. Their responsibility was the delivery of the spacecrafts, launching them in bulk aboard Leviathan, which had been biding time since its test flight so long ago. NASA had since tweaked some integration procedures and reworked some of the platform inserts in the VAB after minor difficulties of the test flight, but otherwise, all was ready. ULA was also in position to manufacture the Firelight 8 upper stages and, even with their use likely over a year or two out, had already found a slot in the near future for the stage among Vulcan operations, which had now moved closer to a regular cadence.

Back at the moon, new landers were about to make their debut as well. Two Lunar landings were on the table for 2022 and both would feature the other two Lunar landers of the program, the JAXA provided lander, and Lockheed’s skycrane lander. Lockheed was up first and, like Northrop before them, was to fly aboard Vulcan with Firelight 4 reserved as a backup. JAXA would be flying on their own ticket, aboard an H-II later in the year. Both landers were an anticipated next step, multiple landers with multiple available launchers, this was viewed as not only robust in terms of mission flexibility, but also security for the program. Spreading contracts far and wide had been a hassle, but in the process the method had planted humanity’s boots firmly in the lunar soil.

 

[Borb]

A little less notice than I wanted, but the fall break I was planning on using for writing turned into a take-home midterm and an essay . There's also something else that's come up that will hopefully be good news and has been heavily occupying my brain. The result of all that is while I probably had the time to write, I definitely have not had a reasonable ability or will to do so. In whatever case, I'm going to raincheck this week and be back next week with some hopefully good stuff, so I'll see you all then.

For now, have a patch in compensation.