![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Red Skies – LOS-2 Udacha
Sep. 5th, 2020 05:31 pmThe Soviet Lunnaya Orbital'naya Stantsiya to replace the destroyed Salyut station, was based on the Troops of Anti-Missile and Anti-Space Defense OS-1 design, nicknamed Battlestar Kermanov, and was launched on top of an N2 rocket.
The N2, consisting of the Blok B and V stages of the Chief Designer's massive N1 rocket, would be capable of lifting 65 tons into Kerbin orbit. The munar station weighed in at just under 16 tons, so not only was the N2 enough to get it into orbit and then into munar orbit, there was sufficient remaining fuel to bring the station back to Kerbin orbit and then out to the Mun again.
Obviously, maximum efficiency was not the concern.
No, the primary concern was getting a station to the Mun as soon as practicable. With a more efficient design, the transfer stage would have been discarded into the munar surface and the station’s engines would be used for orbital insertion. Instead, the transfer stage would remain attached and that 9 tons of fuel and 11 tons of oxidizer would be used later.
The station, though a military design, was primarily for scientific research. The general mission plan is for a series on munar landing craft to collect data on the munar surface and, instead of returning it to Kerbin, to instead deliver it directly to the laboratory in Munar orbit where the data can be researched in a munar context. The huge amount of additional fuel remaining in the transfer stage would allow those landers to refuel and return to the munar surface to collect additional data.
The crew of the LZhM 2 munbase is not scheduled to rotate out for another 100 days. The specifics of the mission plan will involve their replacements being sent out on the next crewed munar mission to assist in the construction of the DLB munbase over the next several weeks. Once the core of the Zvezda munbase is established, the LZhM 2 crew will ascend to orbit to open the Udacha orbital station, there to complete the second half of their deployment.
The N2, consisting of the Blok B and V stages of the Chief Designer's massive N1 rocket, would be capable of lifting 65 tons into Kerbin orbit. The munar station weighed in at just under 16 tons, so not only was the N2 enough to get it into orbit and then into munar orbit, there was sufficient remaining fuel to bring the station back to Kerbin orbit and then out to the Mun again.
Obviously, maximum efficiency was not the concern.
No, the primary concern was getting a station to the Mun as soon as practicable. With a more efficient design, the transfer stage would have been discarded into the munar surface and the station’s engines would be used for orbital insertion. Instead, the transfer stage would remain attached and that 9 tons of fuel and 11 tons of oxidizer would be used later.
The station, though a military design, was primarily for scientific research. The general mission plan is for a series on munar landing craft to collect data on the munar surface and, instead of returning it to Kerbin, to instead deliver it directly to the laboratory in Munar orbit where the data can be researched in a munar context. The huge amount of additional fuel remaining in the transfer stage would allow those landers to refuel and return to the munar surface to collect additional data.
The crew of the LZhM 2 munbase is not scheduled to rotate out for another 100 days. The specifics of the mission plan will involve their replacements being sent out on the next crewed munar mission to assist in the construction of the DLB munbase over the next several weeks. Once the core of the Zvezda munbase is established, the LZhM 2 crew will ascend to orbit to open the Udacha orbital station, there to complete the second half of their deployment.
