What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Alpha 360]

I am making a Jool mission, so far with a manned fly-by vehicle, unmanned lander, and scansat. The manned vehicle is a mk2 lander can with a 10 meter heat shield and a senior docking port. Attached to the docking port is the transfer vehicle, which liquid fuel and a nuclear rocket. The scansat is four relay dishes, scanner, narrow band scanners, gigators, liquid fuel and nuclear rocket. You are probably imagining that I am a newbie with zero mods trying to do something that everyone else has done. Now the unmanned lander is made of two nuclear reactors from the NearFutureEletrics mod, a lithium engine from the NFP mod, batteries from the impossible innovations mod, and landing gear. This is day 28 before the Jool window and both the scansat and the fly-by ship have left with encounters, the fly-by craft with a encounter with Tylo which will give it a free orbit. Soon there will be a manned lander, two or three more unmanned landers which will all be custom(because i need to find out what engines work the best and the most efficient) and multiple relays and maybe a Laythe Space plane. I can't wait.

Edited November 9, 2016 by Alpha 360
"Kouston, we have several problems, but that doesn't matter so we want to continue on with the mission."

[ThatHomelessGuy]

I made more progress in my Land Barge project. Wheels and hinges don't get on with each other so I had to make it heavier than I intended.
But I had some fun with it while testing.

Unfolding the wheels and legs doesn't lift the vehicle off the floor.

You can deploy the standing legs and the wheels independently of each other. They can also be used to raise the cab independently but there is so many robotic parts I have only linked some of them up to keys for the moment considering I keep having to rebuild the lifting legs. I think this is close to the final version of the lifting mechanism though.


And it drives pretty well and handle bumps fairly well. Those terrain seams are a bit of a pain though and cause a little concern.

This doesn't work but until I can figure out how to put the wheels onto hinges I can't rotate the wheels and still have it look ok.

And of course a bit of fun.



More to be done in the future but I have to do my shopping now before the shops close.

[Leopard]

Restarted, following the game deciding to stop saving its state again and the manoeuvre nodes failing, again.

So far managed orbit without any KSP upgrades, recently uplifted the pad but not the VAB as yet.

Playing less often until the reliability gets sorted

[JadeOfMaar]

Well here's a hot one for the R&D archives... Since the Procedural Co's seem to still have no product in KSP 1.2, the handimen at Fort NOX had to substitute the lean midsection of their flagship craft, the NOX Crown with OPT pieces. There is probably a lot more dry mass now than before but now there are more OPT pieces to play with and the craft has evolved into revision 4, a flying lab and probe/rover-dropper.

Physics™!!! Version 1.2

So it seemed a certain pair of rear engines were within exhaust force/damage range from the frontal engines and were getting repeatedly beaten until they simply gave up under increasing pressure.

Quite sadly the CoM is behind the remaining engines before/after that blast, making steering a delicate affair now, but in this position the plane is quite dead. Aerodynamics completely fail and the remaining engines can't compensate even with their power. This gives KSC even more reason to equip all planes now with chutes.

Later that day (discounting my revert to SPH) the design flaw is reasonably addressed and the NOX Crown proves itself still worthy of its name reaching 39km altitude at kingly speeds of 2700+. Next dev tests: actually landing, and aerobraking on return.

 

Edited November 10, 2016 by JadeOfMaar

[Brownhair2]

So yeah, like I mentioned earlier Titanus is broken. It's transitioning from terrain to the orbital model, even though I shouldn't be high enough for it to happen. I'd like to fix it before I try to fly the Peregrine again. Unfortunately I can already tell that my suspicions are confirmed. The atmosphere is so thick at ground level that I can't even get past 100 m/s, and the gravity is so high that I can't climb steeply. I'm going to burn through all my fuel before I get high enough to build up speed. So it looks like I'm going to have to do a rescue mission. On the plus side, the MTU Eagle mysteriously gained 1000 m/s delta-v. Hmm? Wazzat? Where did the other plane go? What other plane? There was definitely only one. I have no idea what you're talking about.

EDIT:

Well, since nobody else is posting, I might as well edit my own post instead of making another. Sound reasoning, right? Heh. Anyway, I actually had something planned for this. In the even that the Peregrine didn't work, I made... this... lander! So I could land on Ete. That's all it is. There definitely isn't a spy satellite attached to the underside. That's a... uh... satellite engine! Bet you didn't know those existed! Stop asking questions.

Edited November 10, 2016 by Brownhair2

[SingABrightSong]

Today I discovered a class-E asteroid...

On an impact trajectory with Kerbin. Seems that my asteroid redirect mission just turned into an asteroid impact avoidance mission...

[LaytheDragon]

KSP is beautiful ^{(with the correct visual mods)}

Today I toyed more with visual mods, as you can see.

 

In other news, the Star Sapphire Mothership's most recent version can reach Minmus... almost. It got a flyby, but had no delta vee to orbit or land (and this test version has no ISRU). In addition, the Kraken struck this particular instance of this vessel in the save, impairing me from being able to take a picture of it at Minmus, and blowing it into shards.

Spoiler

----------

Kraken!

----------

 

Edited November 10, 2016 by LaytheDragon

[JadeOfMaar]

@LaytheDragon The first pic: Duna and Ike? And I want Minmus fog.

[Brownhair2]

Silly me, I got so distracted talking about my lander which is NOT A SPY SATELLITE that I forgot to talk about Ete!

I dunno if any of you remember Krags Planet Factroy? Well, I've been here for 10 seconds and already I'm getting an Inaccessible vibe. I'm only moving 4m/s faster than the surface from orbit! Luckily it seems like it's still possible to land on it.

EDIT:

This is so weird... it's like Gilly, but spinning really fast and has giant slopes.

Edited November 10, 2016 by Brownhair2

[The Raging Sandwich]

Transit 7 and 8 (A redo of the Transit 5/6 mission. Both placed in ~1695 km circular orbit roughly on the other side of the Mun from each other. Another Munar landing mission could be attempted.): Success

Mun T2 (A test of the LES in flight. The spacecraft decoupled from the rocket but the LES failed to ignite.): Failure

Messenger 10 (A redo of the failed Messenger 9 landing mission. Landed on the far-side of the Mun successfully.): Success

Starbird F.6 (Training flight): Success

Mun T3 (A redo of the Mun T2. The spacecraft decoupled and the LES successfully ignited.): Success

Messenger 11 (The first attempted interplanetary mission. Placed into a 120x110 km parking orbit by the new Eve C rocket. Boosted to nearly 4.5 kilometers per second into a heliocentric orbit to a high-altitude Duna flyby due for Yr 3 Da7 372.): Success so far

Starbird F.7 (Training flight): Success

Mun T4 (The final test mission for the Mun spacecraft. Launched into orbit, completed a full orbit, reentered, and splashed down near the KSC.): Success

Mun 1 (The first 2-Kerbal spaceflight mission. Piloted by Rosanda [and someone else, forgot their name. I think it was Mycene or something like that...]. Launched into a 120x110 km orbit. Boosted by the onboard motors into a 250x240 km orbit. Completed 16 orbits overall and returned safely to Kerbin.

Messenger 12 (The third Munar landing mission. Landed successfully on the front-side of the Mun.): Success

 

Next planned mission: Mun 2 (Will attempt a boost into a 260x320 km orbit, the first EVA, and 35 orbits.)

[Clipperride]

I like playing Science Mode.  Mainly because it still gives you the tech tree to unlock but without all that flying snotty nose tourists around to earn enough  to do the things I enjoy most.  I have played Career Mode, so I am able to build reasonably efficient launch vechiles, rather than solving problems by simply building bigger. 

I usually take my time, sending individual missions to the various Minmus Biomes before exploring the Mun and finishing off the tech nodes with an orbital lab or two.  The only problem with that is, by the time I've finished, it's the middle of year 2 and the next Duna Launch Window is well over a year away.  Instead of fast forwarding time, I end up building some bases, doing some mining and setting myself a driving challenge or two.  Having finished my first play through since the 1.2 release, I decided it was time for something different - send a flotilla of ships to Duna when the first window opens up on Year 1 Day 236.  So, today I've set about being more efficient when collecting science points.  

After a couple of launches, I built myself a little buggy to mine points from the Space Centre and surrounding area.  I was surprised to find that, even with just the thermometer, pressure sensor, goo canister and material observations (plus samples and reports), you can easily get over 250 points to play with. Although, it would have been much easier if I'd taken the time to balance the small aeroplane wheels so the wrenching thing held something approaching a straight line!

Add in a quick Mun fly by for my first orbital flight and by Day 4 I was ready to explore Minmus.  A few (ok 4, which was probably overkill) HG-5 High Gain Antennas were enough to keep in contact with  Kerbin and make up for Bob Kerman's lack of piloting experience. I arrived in Minmus orbit with enough fuel to hit all the Flats as well as the Lowlands, before returning home with 2600+ points.  I could have squeezed in another couple of biomes, but it was getting late and I prefer taking a probe core with me, to let me know the elevation of the ground below.  

A similar Mun mission tomorrow should see most of the technology I want opened up with plenty of time left to start working on my Duna ships.  Looks like it will be easier than I thought to get enough tech for a reasonable base and exploration craft!

Gotta love Kerbal Space Program 

[Lojik]

12 minutes ago, Clipperride said:

I like playing Science Mode.  Mainly because it still gives you the tech tree to unlock but without all that flying snotty nose tourists around to earn enough  to do the things I enjoy most.  I have played Career Mode, so I am able to build reasonably efficient launch vechiles, rather than solving problems by simply building bigger. 

I usually take my time, sending individual missions to the various Minmus Biomes before exploring the Mun and finishing off the tech nodes with an orbital lab or two.  The only problem with that is, by the time I've finished, it's the middle of year 2 and the next Duna Launch Window is well over a year away.  Instead of fast forwarding time, I end up building some bases, doing some mining and setting myself a driving challenge or two.  Having finished my first play through since the 1.2 release, I decided it was time for something different - send a flotilla of ships to Duna when the first window opens up on Year 1 Day 236.  So, today I've set about being more efficient when collecting science points.  

After a couple of launches, I built myself a little buggy to mine points from the Space Centre and surrounding area.  I was surprised to find that, even with just the thermometer, pressure sensor, goo canister and material observations (plus samples and reports), you can easily get over 250 points to play with. Although, it would have been much easier if I'd taken the time to balance the small aeroplane wheels so the wrenching thing held something approaching a straight line!

Add in a quick Mun fly by for my first orbital flight and by Day 4 I was ready to explore Minmus.  A few (ok 4, which was probably overkill) HG-5 High Gain Antennas were enough to keep in contact with  Kerbin and make up for Bob Kerman's lack of piloting experience. I arrived in Minmus orbit with enough fuel to hit all the Flats as well as the Lowlands, before returning home with 2600+ points.  I could have squeezed in another couple of biomes, but it was getting late and I prefer taking a probe core with me, to let me know the elevation of the ground below.  

A similar Mun mission tomorrow should see most of the technology I want opened up with plenty of time left to start working on my Duna ships.  Looks like it will be easier than I thought to get enough tech for a reasonable base and exploration craft!

Gotta love Kerbal Space Program 

Love the report mate, thanks.. its write ups like this that make me want to play more and learn more in this game

[Brownhair2]

On second thought, maybe I don't want to land here.

I had the lander re-dock with the Eagle, and had Camlo get out. Now that Camlo is out of the lander, I have decided to put it in orbit around Titanus. To take pictures. Nothing else.

And now whenever I stop using timewarp the lander starts speeding up relative to Ete. I have hereby decided that Titanus is cursed and I don't ever want to come here again

Edited November 10, 2016 by Brownhair2
Clarity

[ThatHomelessGuy]

3 minutes ago, Brownhair2 said:

On second thought, maybe I don't want to land here

I had the lander re-dock with the Eagle, and had Camlo get out. Now that Camlo is out of the lander, I have decided to put it in orbit around Titanus. To take pictures. Nothing else.

And... whenever I stop using timewarp the lander starts speeding up relative to Ete. I have hereby decided that Titanus is cursed and I don't ever want to come here again

I just see black and maybe some sort of patched conics line or something

[Brownhair2]

1 minute ago, ThatHomelessGuy said:

I just see black and maybe some sort of patched conics line or something

There are very big mountains with very steep slopes. And yes, it is very dark. Not the best landing site.

Edited November 10, 2016 by Brownhair2

[ComradeGreen]

Today I learnt that high expectations are almost never met.

After I planned to get to Duna with the Hyperion I, I realised that it would take forever to get Nuclear Engines (And with Inefficiency too boot!) and i had'nt figured out how powerfull my communications network was. So i took on a tonne of Contracts on the Mun and Minmus and landed 2 more Landers on each, the Prometheus VI (Mun) and Prometheus VII (Minmus), I rescued 2 kerbals in the process and brought back a tonne of science. I used these new funds to upgrade my Tracking Station, and the science went to unlocking the Nuclear Engine and some new Comms Equipment, some rover parts (Important for the Duna Mission as I want to put a Rover there before I send a manned mission just for safety purposes) as well as some better fuel. Currently, I'm preparing a stress test of my Communications System by sending a probe to Jool via the new Nuclear Engines I have. This will be important as I have a few Jool Contracts, and my current Fire III in Jool Orbit can't connect to the comms network (I got it in there before I realised I have to turn it on in settings). So currently it's just a heavy stress test operation. after this I'll launch the Satellite bound for Duna if my Communications can hold up interplanetary travel. 

Edited November 10, 2016 by ComradeGreen
I made a mistake in the writing

[Starman4308]

Well, did my first lunar refueling run, and ran into one significant issue.

This isn't it:

For more than an hour of work, landing, driving 20 km to the lander to pick up the engineer, driving 20 km back to fuel up the transport rover, 20 km again to deposit it in the lander, 20 km back to fuel up again, 20 km back to finish fueling the lander, I get maybe half a mission's worth of hydrolox fuel back to the station. Chemical engines just aren't cutting it on 6.4x Mun; it takes ~3 km/sec to land and return to orbit, factor in maybe 400-500 m/sec for rendezvous, and that means getting to and from the station eats up the vast majority of the fuel added to the lander.

There is only one reasonable solution: go nuclear, and go big.

The main tank of the mining station holds over 500,000L of liquid hydrogen in an actively cooled cryogenic tank, measuring 10m long and 8.75m wide. The porter carries a "mere" 300,000L in a single go, of which approximately 150,000L can be delivered to landers (which require less than 40,000L per surface visit). I haven't designed the rover yet, but I suspect it'll be similarly monstrous.

[XB-70A]

I went back to Duna for the first time since my last trip in September under 1.0.5. For the first time with a full stock craft.

As I need a simple relay before futher launch and with the next transfert window already on, Duna Express was build in hurry.

Just powered by two Ants :

 

I choose my old Alliance 11A (well, Soyuz means "Union" afterall) launcher to carry it : 

 

Then...

 

With a mass of just 1.57 tons the relay makes Alliance overpowered. Even after the boosters separation it still accelerating crazily:

 

Taking some rest on a 600x600 km orbit before the transfert. An occasion to go for 856 m/s was possible. No way to refuse as the 3rd stage still have around 1200 m/s available :

 

186 days laters the red dot slowly appears :

 

With less than 400 m/s of dV onboard the 3rd stage I had to separate from it an keep on the circularization with the Ants.

 

Even after the maneuver completed Duna Express still had around 1700 m/s onboard. Enough to get some orbital fun and ensure its mission for the next flight :

[Martian Emigrant]

Good day Corbomite Kerbamites friends of Kerbal kind.

Today I started with a contract to test a coupler splashed....So I did just that.

Ka-ching.

 

Sorry no picture. But I also had to test a "RoveMax M1" on a Mun suborbital flight.

 

I drove my rover I have up there until it got in the air. Quickly ran the test and....

Ka-ching.

 

The contract Minmus station is cleared to land moon touch-down.

More Ka-ching.

 

Now. The following was so annoying.

 

My Mun station had too much science for it's my own good. I have transmitted the accumulated science before but this time I had over 200 Units and the station would run out of power.

 

An older (2014) post told to start the transmission then go to warp.....Buzz....Don't work. To go partial transmission....Buzz don't work.

 

I thought that maybe it's because I have 4 antennas....Il'l fold 3 use partial and see what happens....Buzz....don't work.

 

Then I notice that the <Deleted Expletive> unfolded another one in my back to sneak an expensive transmission out.

 

Then I remembered.....I have a backup communotron16.

 

I sent Dopont to "Fix" the guilty antennas.

 

That worked....Just.

I will have to keep an eye on that station and empty it more often.

The one I just put on Minmus is an exact copy....Including the attached "Twich Engine" that I had to test on the Mun.

 

Play safe.

 

ME

 

Edit:

 

All this was yesterday for me. Today I did have problem with Minmus Station. The allow partial transmission does work with one antenna. I destroyed the extra ones. But if they are all set to partial I think it should work.

 

 

 

 

Edited November 10, 2016 by Martian Emigrant

[nholzric]

I landed my first space plane today! It is carrying 5 crew returning from Minmus. I have a hitchhiker shuttle that brought everyone down from Minmus; the space plane rendezvoused with the shuttle at the Kerbin Space Station.

 

We landed safely! Not exactly on the runway, or very close to the launch complex at all, but safely none the less. And we probably got 1/5 or 1/6 of the way closer to the space station in powered flight, maybe there'll be a runway landing next time.

The space plane launches on a big'ol rocket. (I always get frustrated building useful SSTOs) Recovering from the desert returned 15k funds and the rocket costs 60k funds so maybe not the most efficient but way more fun than a pod!

[CatastrophicFailure]

Continuing my odddyyssseee (can never remember how many of each letter) across Duna...

Once Ceralla finally got her rear end sorted out and hooked the trailer up, the crew of five returns to the location of the first pickup...

...which had, for some reason, decided to spawn 6km off the ground...

Spoiler

 

So yeah, I hyperedited that bugger back down. If the game cheats me, I'll cheat it right back, darnit!

With minimal fuss, the engine and random radiator someone had left lying around were picked up and KAS-ed onto the trailer.

Since the trailer brought along over a dozen RTG's for reliable, mildly carcinogenic power, the crew decides to drop some unneeded weight. With mildly explosive results...

Hope that wasn't important...

The rest of the disassembly proceeds considerably less exothermically. They didn't need all that extra living space anyway.

And now, it's off to find the cockpit! It's a solid 250km schlep, from near the equator down to the edge of the icecap. Even with the trailer in two, the reduction in weight and increased grip of the trailer drive wheels makes for a very sure-footed ride...

Oddly enough, it handles even better now, negotiating steep grades and treacherous side slopes with a bomb. Or is it aplomb? With Kerbals, I forget...

...leading to some very pretty scenery along the way...

I left MechJeb driving while I moved some stuff, and it made the entire 250km trek without damage! Well, lost one landing gear on the trailer, but didn't need that anyway. I picked it up 7km from the next target, in the middle of a dust storm.

And now, to hook up the Mk3 Cockpit and proceed to...

thats... not a cockpit. Or a pod at all. It's a science lab. And also, Sixy Kerman. Sixy. Yeah, she must have had a lovely time in school with a name like that. 

 

 

Well, now I have to figure out how to get a science lab, which is not at all conducive to interplanetary re-entry, safely back to Kerbin. But first I have to get it off Duna. So hook it up, bring poor Sixy along, and let's ride.

Might as well pause for official photographs and flags, as Kerbals are wont to do.

 

Um... guys... over here... you're standing behind the flag... guys...?

 

Guys...?

 

Sigh. It's lke herding cats...
Stupid cats...

Edited November 10, 2016 by CatastrophicFailure

[LaytheDragon]

5 hours ago, JadeOfMaar said:

@LaytheDragon The first pic: Duna and Ike? And I want Minmus fog.

It is Duna and Ike, just normal Duna with Scatterer at the pole, but Ike has its own glow layer. The glows, clouds, and dusts, themselves, are from Sci-fi Visual Enhancements, a high-performance (as in lightweight/fast-running) clouds and atmosphere pack, but I tweaked Minmus' dust color tweaked to be lighter, and put Scatterer's nice laggy atmospheres in place of the pack's atmosphere EVE layers. Either way, its generally faster than regular EVE clouds, and also has dusts and glows that are beautiful (that Minmus scene was in the green/lagless), so I replaced standard EVE with it.

 

 

Edited November 10, 2016 by LaytheDragon

[DD_bwest]

It started last week as i was pondering ways to upgrade my method for a fast track on the tech tree when starting a normal career.  i managed to do a mun landing after only 3 launches as i was feeling good, but it wasnt needed just yet as i could do a different 3rd launch and get significantly more science.  I started to think after that, just how many biome landings i could pull off on launch 4. 

 

Well, the answer was alot, as for the 4th launch, i was able to land in every biome on the Mun and Minmus.  I did the math though, and i was 1500 science short of a rather major accomplishment.  I was lucky tho, as i completely over engineered my ship, and had a crap ton of fuel left.  Enough to swing by duna and ike to get that last bit of science, and head back to kerbin.   I was soon on the surface and ready to cash in 230+ reports.15k~ points lol  it was 152science points more than i needed.

I was also smart enough to head back to the space center often, to grab a contract to plant a flag on the planet my mothership/lander were at.  I did it enough to fully upgrade the science center.

 

I finished the tech tree on a normal stock career in 4 launches lol Proud of myself..

Edited November 10, 2016 by DD_bwest

[Clipperride]

5 hours ago, Lojik said:

Love the report mate, thanks.. its write ups like this that make me want to play more and learn more in this game

Cheers.  There are so many ways to play KSP and new ways to solve the challenges it provides.  Thats why we love it so

[parv]

First manned mission to Mun with deployable rover!

Edited November 10, 2016 by parv