Observer Program

The Observer Program was KASA's first program with the goal of sending orbiters to the Mun. The Observer was a series of small probes intended to orbit the Mun and return information regarding the Mun. Excluding the first launch, the Observer Probes were launched on top of the Trojan II Heavy, which gave enough fuel in the second stage that they could make hundreds of adjustments before being placed in their orbits.

The secondary purpose of the Observer Program was to build a rudimentary relay network around the Mun, so that future surface missions could remain connected.

The Observer's were the first step in KASA's Effort to land on the Mun.

Design
The Observers were originally composed to study the gravity of the Mun, but its purpose later changed to locating a landing zone for the Orion missions after the Prospector Program was approved. As such, the first 2 probes- Observer 1, and Observer 2, were of substantially different designs then the later probes.

Observer 1
Observer 1 was the first KASA mission to explore the Mun. However, the LV selected for this mission was the Trojan II Block 2 rocket. This rocket was equipped with the Rigel Upperstage and 2 SRBs. Adjustments had been made in light of the Aquila 3 Disaster, and the launch into orbit was a non-event.

The Rigel upperstage started performing gravity assists with the Earth, but it was realized after the 4th assist that the upperstage did not have enough fuel to reach the Mun, with an Apogee only half of what was necessary to reach the Mun.

The decision was made to deorbit Observer 1 with whatever little fuel remained in the Rigel, and Observer 1 burned up in the atmosphere after 4 days in Space, with a maximum apogee of 1800km.

Observer 2
The Observer 2 was a largely successful mission to the Mun. Using the same probe design as Observer 1, the only change was the use of a Trojan II Heavy rocket as its LV, with the normal T2 Upperstage. While the Trojan II Heavy was absolute overkill, KASA wanted to eliminate any chance of missing the Mun.

Observer was a success, circularizing around the Mun in 18 days. This required 5 course corrections during its flight, but it finally reached stable 50km equatorial orbit. This also marked the first KASA probe to visit the Mun.

However, after the deployment of the impactor failed. As it deorbited, it lost control and demolished on impact with the Mun's surface. However, during its descent, it found no traces of atmosphere (which was expected). This validated the desire to move forward with the Prospector mission.

Observer 3
Observer 3 was the first of the revised design of probes. The Observer switched out the Impactor for an M4435 Narrow Band Scanner, along with revised Solar Panels. The revised solar panels were smaller, leading to a reduced fairing size on launch. Several other changes were made, including a larger integrated Monopropellant tank.

Observer 3 lifted off from KSC in the early morning onboard its Trojan II Heavy LV. During the launch, the vehicle began oscillating slightly, with the rocket gimballing to correct. This was solved after the rocket switched piloting modes.

Unlike Observer 2 which took 5 course corrections and 18 days to circularize, Observer 3 arrived to the Mun only 3 days after launch, taking only 2 course corrections. Observer 3 entered a polar orbit along the degree inclination orbit of the Mun at 45,000m, and began scanning for suitable landing areas. 0 degrees around semi major axis

Observer 4
Observer 4 was a second orbital orbiter, orbiting at 45000m. However, compared to Observer 3, Observer 4 orbited 90* off the argument of the ascending node. Due to the unfortunate position of KSC with the Mun during Launch, Observer 4 required an astronomical amount of corrections.

Observer 4 required 3 in flight corrections, aswell as 3 Mun orbits to properly circularize. Observer 4 proved made obvious the need of more equatorial relays, as one of the biggest cause of delays was the poor orbital periods that led to multi-hour dead spots in communication with Observer 4.

Observer 5
42000m, 60 degree semi major axis

Observer 6

43000m, 90 degree semi major axis

Observer 7

44,

Observer 8

Observer 9

Back-Up, at 60000m, 45 inclination