Operations Summary – Week of 3/12/18

Ascension Mk1 Lifter Plans Finalized

Although we’ve been unable to begin testing the K2-X engine as planned this month progress is still being made in getting ready for the Ascension program‘s first launch, which was originally targeted for April/May. Unless something goes seriously wrong with the engine tests we still have a chance of making that original window given that we can continue to work on everything else up to the point of assembly. The most recent milestone achieved was the finalization of the designs for the two variations of lifters that will carry payloads into space for orbital insertion.

  
You can also check out the vessel patches here

The design is pretty much our Progeny rockets scaled up, with fins at the base clustered around a single engine. The main difference is that the fins are large enough to support control surfaces similar to the ones used on aircraft that will hopefully allow us to maneuver the rocket onto an optimal ascent path rather than relying on gravity and aerodynamic forces to lower the nose as the rocket climbs. The radial boosters are also a design element in the Progeny rockets but such an arrangement has still not been tested since the Progeny Mk6 Block II has yet to fly, so the Ascension Mk1 Block II is not going to be launching before that happens.

It is important to note that the “Lift Capacity” specified in the blueprints refers to the amount of added mass the rocket can push off the ground at sea level. We don’t yet know (for sure) how much energy is needed to get something into a stable orbit around Kerbin so we have not yet made any calculations for the mass of payload it could deliver into low-Kerbin orbit (LKO) or higher.

The lift stage will be coupled to a second stage or payload and is not designed to be re-usable, however we may attempt to include parachutes for the first few flights just so we can recover the vehicle for study.

The first payload for the Mk1 during initial flight tests will be just a test weight and the Kerbin I probe is still being designed to actually attempt the first orbital insertion towards the middle of the year.

Shutdown Update

As we clarified on twitter earlier this week although our lawyers are working on the amendments we don’t have an in-house legal team so they also have to attend to the needs of their other clients. Still, KSA Operations Director and founder Drew Kerman has spent the past week talking with Assembly members to lock in support for the upcoming revisions so progress is being made on the political front. The Monolithic followers have not been putting up any strong resistance to the upcoming changes, which is a relief but no doubt they are holding back to retain some bargaining capital when discussion comes back around to re-opening the Monolith visitation office after further study is conducted once on-site operations can resume. We wish we could give a timetable for when we will be able to return to KSC but for now it’s still up in the air.

ATN Cites Lack of Precision in Data for Impact Location Error

Last week’s impact of AXX-667(E) could have been disastrous if it had been a larger event given that we were no longer expecting it to happen so close when the Asteroid Tracking Network updated their atmospheric entry location almost 400km further east. Upon realizing they were wrong an investigation was launched and the reason was found to be the lack of numerical precision used for the updated calculations. This error was unfortunately hidden behind the program used to access the data and the astronomers did not realize the problem at the time. Corrective measures have been taken to ensure that all data is stored to the same high precision and that values are checked before calculations are made.

ATN Database

The weekly update for the Asteroid Tracking Network database is available here, containing 1,692 asteroids and 8 updated with new observation data.

From the Desk of Drew Kerman