Category Archive: News

What's going on at the Kerbal Space Agency

Sep 27 2019

Operations Summary – Week of 9/23/19

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Jun 25 2018

New Space Radiation Revelations

The first flight of the Progeny Mk6 Block II gave us some new insight into the region of hazardous radiation that has been found to hover above our planet. If you need a refresher, this article we posted earlier this year will get you up to speed. With the Block II finally being able to pass through and confirm that there is an upper boundary, it brings new context to the data gathered in the past and has brought us closer to understanding exactly what type of structure exists around Kerbin.

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Mar 01 2018

Radiation In Space – What We Know So Far

With further launches temporarily suspended due to the KSC shutdown scientists anticipating more radiation data from space have been left in the lurch. With no other option, they decided to see if any conclusions could be reached by the small data set they currently have. Unsurprisingly the answer is no, and the results have only increased their frustration.

To recap, up until the second flight of the Progeny Mk5 Block I in November of 2017 all previous rockets that had carried radiation sensors recorded a constant level of radiation while outside the atmosphere. The second Mk5 Block I flight, which you can read the details of in this report, flew higher than all previous flights and entered into a region of much higher radiation than previously encountered – measurements rose up to 10x before stabilizing again as the rocket coasted through apokee. Scientists were initially shocked to see such extreme radiation levels so close to the planet, as they expected the magnetic field of Kerbin to keep high levels of space radiation at bay out to much further distances. While it is still possible they could be wrong, after further analysis they have decided the much likelier answer is the magnetic field itself is somehow trapping charged particles within it, forming a region of intense radiation where the particles cluster together. Mapping the shape and size of this region is the current goal of the Progeny Mk6 Block I missions.

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Feb 09 2018

Operations Summary – Week of 2/5/18

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Feb 06 2018

Progeny Mk5 Block I Flight 4 Analysis

Engineers on the Progenitor team have spent the past week carefully analyzing telemetry data not only for the most recent fourth flight of the Mk5 Block I but as well for the entire series of Block I flights. The second flight of the Block I especially was of interest given that it reached nearly the same height and followed a much different trajectory. As usual, we will take a look at the details of the fourth flight first and then move on to the comparative analysis that leads to decisions made for the future of the Progeny rockets.

The Flight

After the numerous delays, the rocket lifted off from the launch pad at precisely 10:00:00.03 local time, soaring up into mostly-clear skies on its first stage 0.625m booster pumping out an initial thrust of 67.2kN for a TWR of 4.02. The nose pitched up only 1.4° before beginning to fall as the rocket tracked eastward away from the Kerbal Space Center. The first stage booster’s thrust profile began to reduce thrust 5 seconds after ignition, relieving stress on the rocket as it continued to climb and passed through a maximum dynamic pressure (MaxQ) of 77.371kPa at L+17.79 seconds. The booster thrust tailed off to just 17.3kN by the time propellant ran out at L+33.67 seconds at an altitude of 14.4km – it was decoupled cleanly one second later and the fins were shredded properly one second after that while the rest of the rocket coasted into the upper atmosphere.

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Jan 26 2018

Operations Summary – Week of 1/22/18

 

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Jan 19 2018

Operations Summary – Week of 1/15/18

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Jan 12 2018

Operations Summary – Week of 1/8/18

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Dec 20 2017

Progeny Mk5 Block I Flight 3 Analysis

Progenitor team members have spent the last few days reviewing telemetry data from the third launch of the Mk5 Block I in order to determine the overall performance of the rocket and what happened to cause two anomalies that occurred during the ascent into space. Both have been tracked down to their root cause and we will cover them after review of the flight.

The Flight

No issues preceded the launch, with perfect weather deciding to show up for launch day although we had plans in place to push into the weekend if necessary to get the rocket launched before the end of the operational year. The lower 0.625m solid rocket booser lit off at 12:30:00.03 local time to push the rocket away from the launch base at 4Gs with 146.142kN of thrust to establish the rocket in its initial climb and not allow lift at the nose to flip it vertical or over backwards. Launching from 85° It stood up to 86.8° before beginning to pitch back over towards the east and away from KSC. After 5 seconds the new lower stage began to reduce its base-level thrust output although given the rocket was climbing into decreasing air pressure the overall thrust continued to increase. 10 seconds after lift off it had reached Mach 1 and 8 seconds later dynamic pressure began to fall as it passed through a Max Q of 78.373kPa, within our planned range of 60-80kPa. It burned out after 33.71s with a thrust of 172.596kN, pushing the rocket to a velocity of 653.520m/s at an altitude of 14.009km.

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Nov 09 2017

Progeny Mk5 Block I Flight 2 Analysis

Last week’s launch was the first complete flight to space and back of our new Block I design, which primarily features more powerful first and second stage solid-fuel booster engines. Despite the incredible record-setting apokee of 493km and being able to recover the payload afterwards (barely), many problems became apparent that have needed to be addressed. In this report we will first cover the details of the flight, then look into solutions for the problems that occurred and finally talk about how we plan to move forward.

The Flight

After delays and a scrub of the initial launch time due to weather issues, the rocket was finally launched off the pad at 01:58:00.03 UTC under command of the Automated Flight Control System. The first stage solid fuel booster kicked in at 67.226kN of thrust to propel the rocket at an initial rate of 4Gs off the pad in order to put enough aerodynamic force into effect to keep the rocket’s nose from lifting too high. Beginning at 85° the nose of the rocket reached a maximum pitch of 86.935° at 2 seconds after launch, well-within limits. Burning fuel at a rate of 39.089kg per second, the 0.625m booster propelled the rocket up to 788.124m/s over the course of its 20.42 second burn, topping out at 76.422kN of thrust. The dynamic pressure at flame-out was 139.299kPa, by far the highest sustained so far by a complete stack of the Mk5. The booster was decoupled as planned 1 second after flame-out was detected, which is when the first flight anomaly occurred.

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