Expedition VII: Apollo 11 - Fly Me To The Moon

Deluvian

Deluvian
Mission Time: -3:05:45:55

When I saw Apollo 11 50th Anniversary Expedition it actually reminded me about the 50th Anniversary of the greatest mankind achievement in space exploration.. Reading more though, I realized that the plan is to celebrate it far away from the location of the actual achievement..
Some of you know me quite well already. What is Cmdr Deluvian good at, if not a pure madness?
I decided that I wanted to celebrate this outstanding historical event in my own special Deluvian way.. I did spend some time discussing this option with one of my good friends Cmdr Zibadian (#FuelRats) to figure out if the idea was even doable..

Well, here it is.. La Luna is 384,400km from El Sol.. I can fly a ship at the speed of 200-300 m/s and actually fly from Earth to Moon.. Well, it will take me between 15-22 days, but this is nothing uncommon for Deluvian right? My obvious choice was DEL-77 Rocintante and I think she definitely deserves it.. I am going to engineer a heck out of it so it is optimal for this extraordinary mission.. There is no way I could "land on the moon" by 20th July as the speed of Apollo 11 was actually significantly higher than all of our ships in #ElieDangerous..
[The actual speed of Apollo 11 was almost 1000 m/s].

I am going to celebrate this travel even if it'd require #FuelRats help.. and I already have commitment of some good old Rat friends to support my madness

More news to follow, so far we still have plenty of time for engineering and development

Expedition Files:
Photos@ Expedition VII: Apollo 11 - Fly Me To The Moon
Live@ Deluvian's Twitch

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Deluvian

Deluvian
Dr. Nagi said:
Yeah the reason why we go so far away is that Luna actually isn't landable but we go to a place that looks just like it^^
Click to expand...
Which is beautiful idea in itself that y'all Commanders found a planet resembling our Moon
I am good at flying in a straight line.. so I thought to celebrate in my own way :D
 

Arry

Arry
Good luck with your quest.

Just don't let NASA get involved, after all, they have issues with the simple things, like the difference between, inches and centimetres.

You have over 3 months, to make the anniversary.
 

Deluvian

Deluvian
Mission Time: -1:01:46:48

And now the time is ticking. It is about 25+ hours to the "launch". Looks like I did not explain it before, but the Apollo 11 launch happened on 16th July 9:32AM EST.. Well, I cannot make it, so I decided to delay my launch by exactly 12 hours. Mission Time shows precisely this countdown. During launch this counter will be replaced with incrementing counter which will simply time entire mission
All the calculations are finished and are actually inline with the latest engineering of DEL-77 Rocintante:

Distance Earth- Moon: 384,400 km

Vessel speed: 304 m/s
Travel time: 1264473 seconds/351.24 hours/14.6 days

Fuel consumption: 0.05t/h
Fuel demand: 17.6t

I hope everything looks good.. we will see. There is still time for the last corrections

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Arry

Arry
Orvidius said:
Have a safe flight! That is to say that there's no need to re-create Apollo 13 instead of Apollo 11. Be careful when you stir the tanks. ;):D
Click to expand...
There was a time, when the 'Fuel Rats', would be a risk of your own ship's destruction. The Limpets, were at fault and would damage your ship, under certain conditions.

I would also like to point out: That if this is to be done, under similar conditions, as in the 1960s space exploration. Then shields, should be left at home; so to get that, 'close, cold death, of the vacuum, that is space,' feeling.
 

Deluvian

Deluvian
Arry said:
There was a time, when the 'Fuel Rats', would be a risk of your own ship's destruction. The Limpets, were at fault and would damage your ship, under certain conditions.

I would also like to point out: That if this is to be done, under similar conditions, as in the 1960s space exploration. Then shields, should be left at home; so to get that, 'close, cold death, of the vacuum, that is space,' feeling.
Click to expand...

ohhh.. I just realized I did not share my build.. I will try to fix it ASAP (busy day at work :()
 

Deluvian

Deluvian
Mission Time: -0:03:54:45

I really have to say one thing: special thanks to Cmdr Zibadian and Cmdr Orvidius helping me realize certain things "last minute".. Astronomy is an interesting science and I know now, that I did not pay enough attention to details of this travel.
So here it is, an update information with some additional answers for the most common questions I am getting:

#1 - here is the current build of DEL-77 Rocinante, no shields no nothing.. pure joy :)https://s.orbis.zone/3szr
#2 - I understand that there are faster ships, I chose Rocinante because of her emotional value and I do not care that the travel is going to be sooooo much longer
#3 - I already decided, this is not "one way trip".. I want to make it there.. and back
#4 - Chasing the Moon.. well, that was my biggest adjustment of the plan based on the comment by Cmdr Orvidius as well as later on conversation with Cmdr Zibadian and other members of #DeluvianCrew

The Moon is traveling quite rapidly on its own orbit around Earth (27.3 days). With the travel time calculated at 14.6 days the Moon would actually change its relative position by 192.53 deg.
Instead of chasing the Moon all the time aiming straight at it to begin with (and keep on adjusting almost every few hours), I will actually attempt to find Moon's orbital plane, flip my ship and travel in the opposite direction to have a randes vous with it in two weeks.
That would mean, I will have way less trajectory adjustments on the way. I hope it make some sense.

Keep in mind that the only time I will use SC speed is traveling to Floryda. Once Rocinante is switched to normal speed, I will have no chance to take a reference of orbital lines visible only in SC.
Instead I am going to use a little target reticle and compare the Moon position with Sol position as the reference, place the Moon "behind me"..

It is a lot of changes last minute for me.. and I am pretty stressed now. Hope everything goes well

Clock is ticking...

Photos@ Expedition VII: Apollo 11 - Fly Me To The Moon
Live@ Deluvian's Twitch

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Deluvian

Deluvian
Mission Time: -0:01:00:00

One hour.. I hope I thought about everything that is important. The tribute will only make sense if this mission is successful..
"Aim high" as one of my previous bosses used to say.. set challenging goals in front of yourself.

"I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish. We propose to accelerate the development of the appropriate lunar space craft. We propose to develop alternate liquid and solid fuel boosters, much larger than any now being developed, until certain which is superior. We propose additional funds for other engine development and for unmanned explorations – explorations which are particularly important for one purpose which this nation will never overlook: the survival of the man who first makes this daring flight. But in a very real sense, it will not be one man going to the Moon – if we make this judgment affirmatively, it will be an entire nation. For all of us must work to put him there."

JFK addressing US Congress

.. and there were some who believed in this wonderful dream.

Let us remember the names of the Commanders who carried out the mission:

Neil Alden Armstrong (1930 - 2012)
Edwin "Buzz" Eugene Aldrin Jr. (age 89)
Michael Collins (age 89)

and the endless list of supporters , designers, scientists, etc. etc. etc....

for all of them.. I am ready for the final countdown..

Photos@ Expedition VII: Apollo 11 - Fly Me To The Moon
Live@ Deluvian's Twitch

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Deluvian

Deluvian
Mission Time: 0:01:08:45

Successful launch with a bit of a glitch on initial disengage of the thrusters.. but with a very quick correction we are flying.. we are on the way and "on course"..
It is so much me.. and yet again so much different than anything else I have done so far..

I hope to catch the Moon in about two weeks.. I will keep you posted

Photos@ Expedition VII: Apollo 11 - Fly Me To The Moon
Live@ Deluvian's Twitch

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