Yes, I did make a mistake by claiming that Mars is our nearest planetary neighbour (23:21). My apologies. Venus is our closest neighbour, about 37 million km closer than Mars (by semi-major axis). Let's say that I meant the closest planetary neighbour THAT WE CAN LAND ON. Because Venus surface is hell and with currect technology it is completely inaccessible for crewed missions. Please, there is no need to call anyone a moron, we all make mistakes.
@@MrCubFan415fr that would take trillions and trillions of dollars-aswell with the fact you can’t just “ship” an atmosphere from one planet to the other.
First of all: this is WAY beyond my feeble KSP skills! The amount of thinking, calculating, planning, iterating, practicing...it's OBVIOUS this took a MASSIVE amount of work and...just PASSION! TRULY a work of art! But...I hope you know that this will NOT be the way Humanity gets to Mars. If we haven't been able to get to Mars yet using Dr. Robert Zubrin's Mars Direct mission architecture (needing only TWO launches per crewed mission of his proposed Shuttle-derived Ares launch vehicle - and that only having a TMI capacity of 47 metric tons) - or Mars Semi-Direct (needing only THREE launches per crewed mission) - or haven't even been able to launch SLS yet after 9 years of development (and just delayed again - to 2021 for its maiden flight) - which of course will only be able to launch 26 metric tons on an Earth-escape trajectory - well...you know. So, we'll assume that what's portrayed in your video - again, TRULY a thing of beauty! - is occurring in an alternate history timeline! ;-)
That's exactly how I treat the KSP career save in which I flew this mission - an alternate history timeline (that started by Apollo spacecraft NOT being retired in favor of a boondoggle Space Shuttle in the 1970s). This is what I truly love about KSP RSS/RO. I'm able to create my own fictional timeline, where dumb politicians do not change NASA's crewed plans between the Moon and Mars every couple of years. Where Boeing continues to be a competent aerospace company that ultimately develops the first reusable rocket (Ares I, predecessor of Ares II) or where Ares VI (my SLS equivalent, also developed by 'better' Boeing) is designed to actually launch hardware into deep space, instead of being a massive jobs program.
@@Lewy94999 That clarifies things immensely! I also noticed that your Ares VI uses the Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne/Dynetics "Pyrios" booster concept proposed for Block II SLS - which each use 2 F-1-derived engines with Saturn V heritage - I always favored that idea as a (relatively) "easy" upgrade for SLS. Of course, SLS has turned-out to be a DISASTER - and THIS article proves that, yes, indeed, it CAN get worse: spacenews.com/sls-cost-growth-exceeds-threshold-for-formal-review/
@@Lewy94999 I can't but fully agree with your comment. But the Space Shuttle from an engineering standpoint was a remarkable vechicle. Unfortunately it failed on basically all its initial premises
Hi this is YANFRET the founder of CMES. It's fantastic to see your achievement here. It is a testament to our shared enthusiasm for this mission that you were able to bring together so many systems in such a detailed way. We are proud you chose to use Chaka Monkey hardware for your flights and wish you great continued success!!!
So, you said the Perseverance will depart next in 2031, but the capsule touched down in 2029. Were you already sending the cargo for the next mission during the first one?
Yes. When the crew departed to Mars in late 2026, I also send four cargo landers for the second crewed mission during that same Mars transfer window. Second crewed mission departed in the second MTVN in late 2028 and flew to Mars alongside cargo landers for mission #3. So cargo always departs one transfer window before the crew. This is mainly because the ascent vehicle needs about two years to produce methane/oxygen propellant on surface of Mars.
Scorpu Would you be able to give a quick written update on what’s happening in your save? I completely understand not being able to make videos often because they do take a lot of effort, but I’m really curious to see what’s going on since you’re kind of entering that era where we don’t really know what is going to happen with space exploration. Colonizing Mars or the Moon? Going to another solar system?
@@harrisongilbert Right now it is May 2031 in my save. Crewed Mars mission #3 departed in January 2031 in MTV Perseverance. After this, there will be three more Mars missions (they will include Phobos and Deimos landings). After those are done, I will begin construction of Mars surface base (mission #6 starts in 2037, first base elements will fly on the next, 2039 transfer window). I also plan a crewed mission to one of the Jovian moons during the 2040s. Closer to home, assembly of new LEO space station will be completed in 2032 or 2033 (previous station was deorbited in 2027 after 37 years of service). This new station is being built, maintained and resupplied by private companies, NASA (which I technically play as) is only a customer that pays for its astronaut stays on the station. Crewed flights to and from the station are also done by private companies. All this will eventually lead to full commercialization of low Earth orbit. Once LEO is fully commercialized, I plan to expand this to the Moon. Private companies will develop capabilities to fly humans to and from the Moon. This will eventually lead to setting up a surface base near the Lunar south pole and water ice mining operations. There is also a lot happening on the robotic missions side. Mercury Lander mission was launched in 2029. There is one orbiter around Venus (since 2017), one lander was sent to Venus during 2020s and there will be 3 Venus missions during 2030s (2 atmospheric probes, 1 orbiter). At the Moon, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter is getting old (launched in 2009), so in 2030 I launched a new orbiter. There will also be a lander that scouts a location for the future Lunar surface base. Around Mars there are 9 active orbiters, that now mostly scout the surface for human missions and support communications. Some of those orbiters are getting old and will have to be replaced during 2030s. At Jupiter, Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer mission ended in October 2030. First robotic Europa Landing took place in May 2029. There is also a spacecraft in Ganymede orbit. Next missions will be Io Volcano Observer, Callisto Orbiter and Ganymede Lander. Saturn. Cassini mission ended in 2023. One month later, Titan Saturn System Mission arrived and since then has been a lone explorer of Saturn system. Until September 2030, when Dragonfly octocopter landed on Titan. Next missions will be Enceladus Orbiter, Titan Orbiter and Enceladus Lander. Uranus and Neptune. Last spacecraft to visit those planets were two Voyager probes in late 1980s and early 1990s. Uranus Orbiter was launched in 2021 and arrived in May 2031. Neptune Orbiter was launched in 2019 and will arrive at Neptune in 2032. In early 2030, Pluto Orbiter mission was launched. It will arrive at Pluto in 2046. It carries a small lander that will land on Pluto. Uhh... This came out long. Robotic missions are just as important as crewed ones (if not more).
@@Lewy94999 That was really interesting, thank you so much! Just out of curiosity, do you have any sort of plan for your next video? A human landing on a Jovian moon sounds really interesting, I don't think I've ever heard of a DRA-like design study for a Jovian moon landing.
@@harrisongilbert I have some ideas for next videos. Robotic Mercury Lander mission, crewed Phobos landing and commercial crewed Lunar mission. Also a bit further into the future, a robotic Pluto orbiter and crewed Jovian moon mission, but those two will be in mid 2040s.
Also I know that I personally wouldn't be comfortable knowing the return flight (Perseverance I guess) is on it own in orbit… and sure, you can't just leave someone in there to wait for the whole mission duration… but still.
I only ever play on sandbox, with an absolute fuckton of mods. My greatest achievement was getting an SSTO from Kerbin, establishing a base on the Mun, which I used to launch manned and unmanned missions to Duna. It took me a lot of trial and error, and took me a couple weeks to get it down right. But this, this is something else. I wish I had the skill and creativity you do. This is insane.
Very well done! I can tell a lot of time went into this! I ran a smaller scale but similar mission in stock ksp. I opted to leave the Orion spacecraft behind in low kerbin orbit though. I didn't see much point in bringing it along because of the added delta-v requirements. Maybe I'm missing something though.
Just one question: How did you calculate the landing point on Mars when starting from Earth? In KSP there are no tools for such calculations. You photographed the return process in detail, but the start to Mars - and this is the most interesting part - is cut out ....
When launching from Earth I was only focusing on getting into proper low Earth parking orbit and then getting a Mars encounter. Once the landers left Earth's sphere of influence, I planned out a course correction that cleaned up injection maneuver inaccuracies and brought Mars surface impact location close to the landing area (within 500km, MechJeb's landing autopilot has a landing location prediction function). Usually that first correction happened 130 to 180 days after launch. After completing first correction maneuvers, I planned out a second set of course corrections, 40 to 30 days before landers arrival on Mars. Then a third and final set of corrections, just after each lander entered Mars' SOI. For first and second set of corrections I used MechJebs Landing Prediction, for the third set I used Trajectories Mod's much more precise predictions to fine tune landers landing point to within 20km from the targeted landing site.
Commenting before video is over, because I *love* the cranes you built using KAS and robotics. I have wanted to make something workable like that for a long time but never properly managed it. Kudos to you!
Thanks. Rover parts are from a mod called Capsule Corp. Endeavour (Mars Base Camp). Most of the new engines I added by creating new variants in existing RO global engine configs (located in GameData\RealismOverhaul\Engine_Configs folder). So my F-1C variants are attached to F-1B global config, AJ23-242's use AJ10-190 config, MDV engines use SuperDraco config and J-2X-x use, well... J-2X config. This method saves a ton of work, because it doesn't require making new base part, RO part, RO global and plume configs for entirely new parts. But it only works for engines that are similar in size (mass can be adjusted per engine variant in global configs). For STME and MTV nuclear engine I created new parts that utilize existing engine models. STME uses RS-25 (SSME) model from SSTU mod, but I made new base part, RO part, RO global and plume configs for it. STME variants could work as attachment to SSME global config, but I wanted my STME to have several upgrade variants and I didn't want to clutter SSME config too much. Nuclear engine uses BNTR model from Chaka Monkey and it also needed all new configs.
Pretty impressive I did a similar Mars mission in RSS/RO though I used the FASA Saturn V with Titian SRBs and Nova C8 for most of the cargo lifting. I want to know where to get that SEV Rover mod.
SEV Rover parts are from the Capsule Corp. Endeavour (Mars Base Camp) mod. There are no official RO configs for it unfortunately, I had to make my own.
What a swell of pride to hear the declaration that this endeavor is in peace for all mankind. When we are truly tested is when everyone pulls together. When we are united we are mighty in power.
Damn. This is amazing lol. I really wanna play with RSS because then I have that feeling where I can say this is something that could happen in real life (of course if we had the technology). Now I play stock KSP no mods and it's sad cuz I have sent all these cool stuff to Duna and the Mun yet all of it isn't possible irl because the planets in KSP are so small. Problem is I don't know how my computer will handle RSS (it's crap), and I'm afraid it'll be way too hard. Why did you do this in 1.2.2 though?
What was that spaceplane docked to the crew transfer vehicle? It looked kinda like that automated crew return vehicle that nasa looked into, was it inspired by that or?
Hopefully yes. However, my video takes place in an alternate timeline, where humans returned to the Moon in 1999 and continued exploring it until 2012. After that Mars was a natural next step and it took a decade of preparations to get there.
During the first cargo run i was surprised by how complicated your unloading process seemed. I wonder if it wouldn't have been simpler to set up the trailer first, then lower the undeployed hab module onto it for transport back. The more complicated a process is, the higher chance of failure.
How you described it would likely be the way to do it on a real mission. However in KSP this would actually be harder to do, since there was almost no way to precisely steer and 'dock' the 14 ton storage module onto the trailer while it swinged in every direction. My way of doing it was just navigating around the game's and robotic mod limitations. Also not having a docking port on that trailer lowered the part count a bit.
Finally finished watching this... and just wow. The amount of planning and designing is simply astounding. I couldn’t even pull something with tbis much detail off in regular KSP, and you did it in RSS. Incredible work
anote os meus videos e grave eles poderao servir de instruçao na vida real se algum dia vcs precisar vcs tem este programa de conteudo spacial na vida real serve tambem como base ok fique ciente
Thanks! But I don't think I will do a Space X like Mars mission and even if I do, it won't be an exact recreation. I play my KSP career save as an alternate timeline, where a lot of things in spaceflight went differently after 1970s. And the thing is, Space X doesn't exist in my timeline (Boeing-Grumman took the role of pioneering reusable landing rockets instead). I have a candidate fictional company that might be able to do what Space X plans, but I don't promise anything. And if it ever happens, it will be much later, only after my current Mars mission program is finished (so after 2037 game time).
I'm far from being at a point of making Mars missions in my channel playthrough, but can't wait to get to that point. Videos like this are a reminder to press on! 😄
Thanks. The 70 tons for combined ascent/descent vehicle assumes no ISRU. It would have to be launched fully fueled and that would be too heavy for either the Ares IV or the MTV (I also didn't want to fiddle with Mars orbit rendezvous). Launching it half empty, bringing it to Mars with the MTV and starting ISRU after the crew has landed also wasn't an option. I have a rule which states that no one lands on Mars, unless there is a fully fueled ascent vehicle already on the surface.
hey @Scorpu awesome video my dude. im just getting into RSS/RO my self. Question...What heat shield was that on your Mars descent vehicle? I have been looking for a inflatable design like that.
The only thing you got wrong is that mars isn't our closet neighbor it's actually Venus. But if you go by the amount of time each planet spends on average closet to earth then it's actually mercury
At 28:15 there should be music from Convoy (1976) movie. Mars, noon, on the seventh of June. When they highballed over the pass. Bulldog Mack with a can on back. And a Jaguar haulin' ass.
No, not really. I am not simulating the future of our spaceflight timeline. I'm creating a new timeline that diverged from ours decades ago. So how not having the Gateway is an inaccuracy?
