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CLLARE Project Overview document

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12:15 am
January 9, 2010


Luke Maurits

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Post edited 6:22 am – January 9, 2010 by Luke Maurits


I think we should make it a major goal to have a really nice "CLLARE Project Overview" document ready before the end of January.

This document will briefly explain what CLLARE and CSTART are, will outline the mission (i.e. describe our lunar orbit rendezvous plan etc), will introduce all the core hardware components, will discuss our launch options and have as many accurate mass and cost estimates for everything as we can possibly manage.  This document will be an excellent help to us.  It will help us convince people that we are serious and competent, it will help to get people excited about the idea by showing them how simply and cheaply it can be done.  We can post links to this document to /r/space and /r/science with provocative headlines like "CLLARE: an open source US$50m manned moon mission designed by CSTART, an open source space agency born on Reddit" – that is the sort of thing that should get heavily upmodded.  We can also (probably before that) give copies of this document to the experienced outsiders we are on good terms with (Peter Madsen from Copenhagen Suborbitals, Gary Schneider from Open Luna) and ask for their ideas to get really good, specific feedback.  Basically this will be a huge help to the project and will bring us to the point where we just need more experienced people in to refine the details.  Those of us who aren't engineers can then focus without distraction on finally getting all the legal corporate stuff taken care of.

I don't have a lot of spare time this weekend to work on this, but I threw together a partially complete concept last night to get the ball rolling.  It's a pdf file (complete with links into our Wiki at appropriate points), you can grab it here (aside: I wanted to upload it to the Wiki, but it said I couldn't upload a .pdf, can we reconfigure the Wiki so this is possible?).  There's a lot more work to do, but this gives you a sense of the flavour of what I think we should aim for.

I'd really like to see a lot of collaboration on this.  Obviously the core members from this forum who know the plan and the hardware best will need to be involved, but this is also the kind of thing we should try to recruit new members from Reddit for.  People with good graphics and CAD skills should be able to pitch in by helping to provide as many diagrams and concept figures as we think is useful.  People with good marketing/PR skills can make sure we word things as effectively as possible, and anybody at all can check the spelling or let us know when things are unclear to people who are meeting CLLARE for the first time.  We want to make sure this document is as good as possible and we should try to activate the community as much as we can to achieve this.  There are 18 votes on the 2nd phase of the motto competition already, that shows that there are interested people watching us, let's try to get them involved!  I will submit a link to this post to /r/tothemoon to help facilitate this.

With regards to actually working on it, there are a few things to make clear.

Firstly, this is absolutely something that we should be using our Mercurial repository for.  I have created a clone repository for myself to work on this in.  I am not sure whether or not the best approach would be for other people to clone my clone and merge all changes there, pushing from my clone to the main repository, or to have other people produce their own clones of the main repository and for us to try to keep them all in sync.  Whatever works, works, I suppose.

I don't want anybody to feel like they can't contribute to this because they don't know Mercurial so if you can't figure out how to do something or you just can't be bothered, instead of doing nothing just post your material in this forum or email it to me and I will make sure it gets in.

Secondly, the document is produced using LaTeX.  For the unfamiliar, LaTeX is a typesetting proram that is very popular in academia and in the publishing sector.  It takes a plain text file of marked up text (sort of similar to a HTML file) and turns it into a pdf (or a few other formats) in such a way that it looks really professional and clean.  It automatically takes care of all the presentation issues, builds tables of contents of reference lists, etc. and just lets you focus on your actual material.  It also has incredible support for formatting very complicated mathematical equations, chemical formulae, etc.  This is why LaTeX is the practically the only thing used to produce papers in the engineering, science and maths part of academia.

There is a bit of a learning curve if you are new to LaTeX, but there is heaps of documentation online, including a WikiBook.  I tried to make sure that my first version included examples of how to do most things that someone might want to do, so that they can just look at my code and generalise from it.  The code for my version is visible online here (not line wrapped, sorry).  This one file, cllare_overview.tex is the only file that needs to be modified to produce a new version of the pdf, contributing to this document is basically a matter of contributing to this .tex file.

I don't want anybody to feel like they can't contribute to this because they don't know LaTeX so if you can't figure out how to do something or you just can't be bothered, instead of doing nothing just post your material in this forum or email it to me as plain old text and I will make sure it gets in.

That's about it from me.  Please start throwing out ideas!  Be bold!  Write snippets of text, or entire tracts, produce diagrams, make CAD models, basically use whatever skills you have to help make this document shine.  If you have skills and want to contribute but you don't know what to do, just let us know what you can do and somebody will point you in a useful direction.

Main workgroups: Mission Planning, Navigation and Guidance. I do maths, physics, C, Python and Java.

6:59 am
January 9, 2010


Luke Maurits

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If somebody wanted to create a nicer looking version of this image:

10075090mouse

with all the Apollo specifi references replaced with CLLARE equivalents, that would be an awesome thing to include.

Main workgroups: Mission Planning, Navigation and Guidance. I do maths, physics, C, Python and Java.

7:17 am
January 14, 2010


Luke Maurits

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Pushed a new version of the document to my clone repository today.  The link in the first post to this thread always points to the latest version so check it out there.

Main workgroups: Mission Planning, Navigation and Guidance. I do maths, physics, C, Python and Java.

9:52 pm
January 14, 2010


Rocket-To-The-Moon

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This is definitely starting to look professionally done. Good work.

About recreating that graphic. I can give it a shot, but I am a far cry from a graphic artist. What key mission events do you think should be included on the graphic?

Main Workgroups: Propulsion (Booster) & Spacecraft Engineering (Lander)

9:55 pm
January 14, 2010


Rocket-To-The-Moon

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Also there is a small mistake in paragraph 1.1. CLLARE stands for Collaborative Lunar Landing and Research Expedition. You forgot the "expedition" part.

Main Workgroups: Propulsion (Booster) & Spacecraft Engineering (Lander)

10:04 pm
January 14, 2010


Luke Maurits

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Main workgroups: Mission Planning, Navigation and Guidance. I do maths, physics, C, Python and Java.

6:40 am
January 15, 2010


Rocket-To-The-Moon

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Luke Maurits said:What were your thoughts on the Orbital Support Module concept proposed in this thread?  I haven't updated the Overview document to reflect that yet because I'd only got a positive response from brmj and I usually like to wait on at least two good responses before considering something "decided"/p>


The OSM looks like a good basic concept. Essentially it needs to support the CM's life support, electrical power, and maneuvering. We also need to think of how exactly this will interface with the CM. Do we run lines directly through the heat shield or do we go around the edge (since there are no aerodynamic concerns anymore)?

The RCS could be used in place of the retro motor if all four "up" thrusters are fired simultaneously. This would reduce the mass by removing the retro motor, but increase mass since we need more fuel for the RCS.

Main Workgroups: Propulsion (Booster) & Spacecraft Engineering (Lander)

6:49 am
January 15, 2010


Luke Maurits

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It's important to remember that the Falcon 9 fairing alleviates aerodynamic concerns only for lunar landing missions, and possibly circumlunar missions.  Orbital filghts will be far too light, and will probably be launched without a fairing, like the Mercury and Gemini launches.  So the CM-OSM combination still needs to be aerodynamic.

That said, I have been warming to the idea of going around the edge of the heatshield.  We could simply put a streamlined "wart" over the interface to keep things aerodynamic.  This is probably more in keeping with our focus on simplicity than figuring out a way to go through the heat shield safely.  Mind you, I still don't know how Apollo went through their heatshield.  Maybe it's actually not that hard to do safely?

I'm actually not sure what sort of delta-v is involved in a deorbit burn from LEO, although this won't be hard to find out.  It may be possible to use the RCS for this, and if it is I agree that we should.

Main workgroups: Mission Planning, Navigation and Guidance. I do maths, physics, C, Python and Java.

6:57 am
January 15, 2010


Rocket-To-The-Moon

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Good point, I'm always brain dumping the early sub-orbital and orbital test flights.

I think that going around the edge is perfectly feasible. Just put a small aerodynamic cover over the wires/hoses and it shouldn't be much of a problem at all.

Main Workgroups: Propulsion (Booster) & Spacecraft Engineering (Lander)

8:05 am
January 15, 2010


Luke Maurits

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I've pushed a new version to my clone – as before, the link in the first post points to the current version.

This version includes the beginnings of some more principled mass estimates for the CM, going through the various subsystems of Mercury and Gemini and estimating modern masses for each of them.  I've only just began on this (help welcomed!) but so far it's lead to an estimate of 1114 kg, which is only going to decrease.

Main workgroups: Mission Planning, Navigation and Guidance. I do maths, physics, C, Python and Java.

9:10 am
January 16, 2010


Luke Maurits

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Another new push!  This time with some astrodynamics calculations and a bit of background work on the propellant mass stuff, which I'll try to add tomorrow.  After that I'm gonna take a break from working on this document for a little while.  Others should still feel very free to contribute, though!

Main workgroups: Mission Planning, Navigation and Guidance. I do maths, physics, C, Python and Java.

9:10 am
January 16, 2010


Luke Maurits

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Another new push!  This time with some astrodynamics calculations and a bit of background work on the propellant mass stuff, which I'll try to add tomorrow.  After that I'm gonna take a break from working on this document for a little while.  Others should still feel very free to contribute, though!

Main workgroups: Mission Planning, Navigation and Guidance. I do maths, physics, C, Python and Java.

10:30 am
January 17, 2010


Luke Maurits

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Sorry about earlier double post.

Just did another push, with some propellant mass work and also the beginnings of some consumable gas calculations.

As mentioned I'm going to take a little bit of a break from this now to try to get some university work finished.

Main workgroups: Mission Planning, Navigation and Guidance. I do maths, physics, C, Python and Java.

10:58 pm
January 17, 2010


Rocket-To-The-Moon

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I really like how this is progressing Luke. I'm sorry that I haven't been contributing very much. I just started a new round of classes and that has been taking up a lot of my free time.


Just so everyone knows, I'm going to be gone for 3 weeks starting on Wednesday. Hopefully I'll be able to check in, but there is no way that I'll be able to put in more than 20-30 minutes per day.

Main Workgroups: Propulsion (Booster) & Spacecraft Engineering (Lander)

12:02 am
January 18, 2010


Luke Maurits

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No problem!  There isn't really a deadline on this, I'm just keen to see it looking relatively complete soon because I think it will be such a great way to raise interest in CLLARE and will result in a lot of detailed, targetted feedback.

I think the main hold up on further progress now is the fact that our lander configuration is a little bit up in the air.  There are two options being discussed, having the lander in a hanger behind the CM but infront of the PM, or having the lander dock with the nose of the CM.  There are pros and cons to both and I'm not sure if we should write up both options in the Overview or try to make a decision.

To this end, I'm about to post another new lander design (for the CM-nose docking option) for feedback.

Main workgroups: Mission Planning, Navigation and Guidance. I do maths, physics, C, Python and Java.

5:22 am
January 20, 2010


Luke Maurits

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Another new version!  Quick changelog:

  • Additional detail in flight plan overview
  • Minor additional detail in Computer System section
  • Added reference to EVA suit
  • Removed reference to Lunar Mission Module since nose-docked CM seems more likely now
  • Many other minor tweaks and restructurings
  • Lots of cosmetic improvements: graphics on title page, prettier hyperlinks throughout

It's starting to look pretty nice!  Once we settle on a preliminary lander design we'll be able to really polish it off.  Still plenty of scope for other people to jump in and help write this, though!

Main workgroups: Mission Planning, Navigation and Guidance. I do maths, physics, C, Python and Java.

5:28 am
January 21, 2010


Luke Maurits

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Another new version, nothing really exciting, just more steady progress.

I'm going to be fairly busy next week and the week after trying to get some papers ready for submission to a conference, so I won't be able to do a lot of work on the Overview document.  I'll try to put in a fair amount of time over this weekend before that happens, though.

Main workgroups: Mission Planning, Navigation and Guidance. I do maths, physics, C, Python and Java.

7:35 am
January 21, 2010


Rocket-To-The-Moon

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More nice work. This looks like just about any technical (albeit not too technical yet) document that one would come across. I think that it will be a major help in our recruiting of non-amateur members.

Main Workgroups: Propulsion (Booster) & Spacecraft Engineering (Lander)

7:52 am
January 21, 2010


Luke Maurits

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It will definitely be a huge help.  I'm hoping now that it won't get any more technical than it already is, as it is only supposed to be an overview.  Once we have done a little more work we can create separate manuals for the CM and LL which will be real full blown manuals, with as much technical detail as possible: wiring diagrams, etc.

Main workgroups: Mission Planning, Navigation and Guidance. I do maths, physics, C, Python and Java.

2:39 am
January 24, 2010


Luke Maurits

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Another new push featuring re-done propellant mass analysis and many more pictures.

I'm starting to feel like this document is good enough, in terms of structure and level of detail, that we could show it to a few people now without any real embarassment.  People we may like to show it to are Gary Schnyder from OLF and Peter Masden from Copenhagen Suborbitals for technical feedback, Paul Graham from OLF and Sanjoy Som from One Flag in Space, just to get general feedback and guage interest, as well as spreading awareness, and someone from Lunar Numbat as part of a Friends of CSTART request (their radar altimeter is now explicitly mentioned in the overview document).

Do people feel like this is a good idea?  If so I'll send these emails out tomorrow some time.

Main workgroups: Mission Planning, Navigation and Guidance. I do maths, physics, C, Python and Java.

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