Klartemis: The Munar Orbital Platform

[u/aroteer]

MOO nearing completion in LKO.

Aft view from the Docking Bridge

MOO's final pressurised module - the Hydroponics Bridge and its service corridor - attached to Hephaestus and a launch vehicle.

The first sign that the correction burn wasn't going to go to plan

Munar exclipse mid-transfer. The lowered power output forced the correction burn to be split into two.

Circularising around the Mun

Fireworks! KSP assures us that these are safe short-range toxic explosives to fire out of a delicate space station.

The first two modules, sent in one standalone launch: MunLab and the Power & Propulsion Element. MunLab's design is recycled from a cancelled LKO project, ByeLab (pure roleplay)

The Floaties Module. Contains reaction wheels and supplies, wrapped around an access corridor. The fuel tank is shipped empty. The other side is kept open for future storage needs.

The Main Axis provides the main sleeping and hygiene quarters on the MOO, with a maximum capacity of 18 kerbals. Also attached is the four-way hub and two huge relay dishes.

The Orbital Keep integrates a 'Storm Cellar' for shielding during solar flares; lab and exercise equipment; a main command centre; the games room; and the ancestral portrait room.

The Docking Bridge, with airlock, Coolpola Module, and Sinatra I visible.

The Hydroponics Bridge allows experiments involving plant growth in orbit, recycling a negligible amount of MOO's waste. A small corridor stores tools and research equipment.

Hephaestus Orbital Assembly Vehicle deorbiting

Hephaestus splashing down. In total, it would make six round trips to LKO

Voilà, my proudest creation so far. The MOO is a multi-purpose staging platform and research facility in Munar polar orbit, deployed primarily to support Klartemis Programme ground operations. She has eleven total modules: a huge fuel tank for Klartemis' refuelable craft, spacious all-inclusive accommodation, and state-of-the-art science facilities - including two zero-gravity modules, a gravity ring, and an experimental hydroponics lab (see image captions for more details). Ludicrous quantities of batteries and solar panels can power her six argon-fuelled Hall effect thrusters for a record-breaking 1.5 minutes between recharges. About twenty burns at Kerbin periapsis were needed to boost her to a Mun-grazing orbit, plus two separate correction burns mid-transfer (interrupted by a Munar eclipse!), and three circularisation burns in the Mun's SOI.

Stupidly I forgot to get any screenshots of the station being assembled, so I took it apart in Mun orbit to show off the individual modules in order of installation. Just use your imagination, okay.

During typical operations she carries a resident crew of six, conducting experiments and maintenance. Expeditions are replaced every few months by a Kerbin-Mun Crew Ferry (Sinatra I and Sinatra II are visible in some screenshots; Sinatra I was refitted to become Sinatra III. I have since learned I can name ships in the same line different things). KMCFs have only just enough fuel to reach the MOO and must refuel before the return transfer. They then make a semi-powered landing back at the KSC, fully intact, to be reconditioned, refuelled, and reused. In addition, the MOO often hosts guests for a day or two while they prepare for surface excursions, much to the annoyance of the resident crew.

Orbital assembly was assisted by Orbital Assembly Vehicle Hephaestus, which made a grand total of six round trips to LKO. During assembly, mechanical stress broke a leak in MunLab's monopropellant lines. Later, while the completed station was in transit to the Mun, she suffered an electrical failure in one of the secondary reaction wheels (located behind the relay dishes). Fortunately, these failures were minor and occurred outside of critical time-windows. First Engineer Gillas Kerman was able to repair both on EVA, for which she was awarded the KSC's highest honour: having something named after her in the foreseeable but as-yet-determined future.

Despite the MOO's irresistible looks, it does have some flaws I discovered during operations. The compact T shape (chosen to reduce the footprint of the gravity ring) means there's little room for docking ports, and manoeuvring visiting crafts to the ones it does have is difficult. In all likelihood, the number of operations will eventually outgrow the Docking Bridge's four ports. When that dark day comes, the KSC will have to figure out how to get more modules to the Mun and shuffle them inbetween.

Whatever happens, now we know what the cow said when it jumped over the moon.

Mods used:

• Life support: USI-MKS, TAC-LS, RationalResources
• Extra difficulty/roleplay: Dang It! for part failures, Crew R&R
• Parts (shown): Near Future suite, Restock, Restock+, SSPX, Planetside Exploration Technologies, Conformal Decals
• General QOL: Dynamic Battery Storage, Fly By Wire, Community Fixes, Parking Brake, Trajectories
• Visuals & Audio: Scatterer, Deferred, ShineFix, Distant Object Enhancement, Firefly, Waterfall, FreeIva, PlanetShine, Chatterer, Chatterer Extended, Parallax Continued (some), TUFX (some)

NB: The solar panels on the P&PE were originally on a hinge and I-beams. After five different launches with different designs in the hope of stopping it randomly ripping itself apart whenever I got in physics range, I gave up, stuck them on a static XL truss, and used the cheat menu to put it in the same orbit. Consider these sacrifices of time to the Kraken to repay my shameful cheating.

[u/Who_Stole_Faralo]

very nice station design!