What did you do in KSP1 today?

[hellblazer]

Sent up Atlantis to deliver the S-Zero truss section to my ISS. Slowly but surely haha

 

 

[CaptainTrebor]

Installed BD Armoury, then build V1 and V2 style flying bombs.

[Brownhair2]

@NISSKEPCSIM Welcome to the forums!

---

I brought the rover I used on my Jool mission, since I figured I'd have a long trek to make:

I also brought some explosives for kicks and giggles destroying debris

Cool guys don't look at explosions...

Anndd... legs attached!

And with that, the first part of my base is complete!

let the awkwardly-shaped payloads begin...

[yoergiebear]

I made a vertical takeoff plane with stock parts!

[NISSKEPCSIM]

3 hours ago, Jett_Quasar said:

Star Destroyers are fun!

Jett

Cool! I wonder if it could actually get to space.

 

@RoboRay where did you get that Soyuz-style capsule?

[kraden]

4 hours ago, NISSKEPCSIM said:

PS: NISSKEPCISM actually stands for: the National Irish Society of Stranding a Kerbal on Every Planet and Crashing Ships Into Moons. 

Dia duit, agus failte romhat to the forums! Love the acronym name as well as the landing story  we look forward to hearing more from you!

[Jett_Quasar]

30 minutes ago, NISSKEPCSIM said:

Cool! I wonder if it could actually get to space.

 

That version of the craft is not able to be converted into an SSTO, but the good news is that I'm working on a larger version that might.

Jett

[SmashingKirby148]

11 minutes ago, kraden said:

Dia duit, agus failte romhat to the forums! Love the acronym name as well as the landing story  we look forward to hearing more from you!

Please tell me you actually know Irish and you didn't use Google Translate. I'm Irish, so I would be pure proud if you're also Irish.

[Stewcumber]

Today was exciting! I learnt all about orbital rendezvouses and put up my first space station core + living quarters + re-fuelling tank (so far!) around Kerbin:

I wanted to take up 8 crew to man the station. I also designed my first re-usuable craft at the same time. The big wings up front created lots of problems during launch, what with the amount of drag they must be creating and wanting my ship to flip around. I overcame this problem with brute force- lots of winglets at the back, lots of reaction wheels and a healthy dose of RCS thrust.

Here it is docked at the Orbital Viewing Platform. Slight problem- I forgot the bloody passengers! 8 Empty seats on my ship! There won't be any kerbals boarding today

After some snacks and a game of Uno, it was time to go home. I thought I would try to land at the runway, what with my ship being re-usable and everything...

I managed to land at KSC

[dboi88]

[SPOILERS]

Heading off west over the mountains.

Over the sea

And onto the deserts

Approaching the drop zone.

Spoiler

Cargo Released

Spoiler

Hanging around to ensure Kontainer has landed

Spoiler

Back over the deserts

Lining up approach at KCS

Safe Landing

Approaching cargo drop

Transferring Supplies

Edited January 15, 2017 by dboi88

[Carl]

So good news. Mission Success.

Writeups gonna take a bit but after i pulled the probe i was out there to provide a comm linkup to into duna orbit i managed a low ike flyby before wandering onwards to have further ike encounters that setup more ike encounters that ultimately threw my out of the duna system. Had to use most of the monoprop stages fuel to pull the deorbit burn and slow for a safe landing on kerbin, (note, need moar chutes), but got 1200 science out of the deal. Price of probe. 211k. Price of rescue relay. 3.25m. Knowing you've beaten a particularly tough challenge, priceless.

 

Relay still has like 6k odd dv in it too, so lulz.

 

[kraden]

1 hour ago, SmashingKirby148 said:

Please tell me you actually know Irish and you didn't use Google Translate. I'm Irish, so I would be pure proud if you're also Irish.

Irish heritage. I did not use Google translate, but I am by no means fluent. Labhríonn tú gaeilge? (Grammar?)

[fourfa]

11 hours ago, Frag2000 said:

a question popped for my newbie mind. I do not get why you undocked and flipped the lander to face the spacecraft then redock ...Would you enligthen me?

Guessing here, but maybe you're asking about the maneuver used on all the Apollo missions called Transposition, Docking, and Extraction?

[ProtoJeb21]

After my assembly of Kupole Station, I had to get the Kerbals ready for their first crewed Mun landing! At least, the first one in that save. Since Jeb was busy manning the station, and since Bill and Bob are terrible pilots, the only Kerbal of the Original Four available to take on the mission was Valentina. The only reason she was at Kupole was because she had to drop of four Kerbals, two engineers and two scientists. I transferred the engineers to the quadruple crew module on the top of the station and the two scientists to the orbital lab. Then I detached the spaceplane, cut my prograde velocity, and safely splashed down near Kerbin's badlands. I originally had doubts about the plane surviving due to its slightly offset wings. However, they didn't cause any issues at all!

With Val back home, I had to design a lander. My goal was to make a heavy-duty science gathering Mun lander capable of taking nearly every type of experiment in its surroundings, mining some ore from the biome it was in, and returning the Kerbal home safe and sound. I decided on a lander with the Cupola module, four Terrier engines, radiators, a surface scanning experiment, multiple other science instruments, a small mining system, and more. It was named RHEA I. I did a few tests of its action groups and mining operations before building the lifter.

The Rhea I was launched to the Mun around sunset, Kerbin time. Things were working as they should have. The SRBs provided the vessel with a large enough kick to get into orbit with a lot of fuel to spare. However, at an altitude of around 30 kilometers, I noticed something strange. This was the altitude where the liquid fuel boosters should've run out of fuel, be detached, and immediately cause the main tank to be refueled. That wasn't happening. The main engine burnt out as I realized...I FORGOT TO PUT ON THE FUEL HOSES! There wasn't anything I could do about it, and the rocket still had plenty of steam left, so I let it be. Val didn't seem to be worried, though.

Everything after that was routine orbital insertion and creation of the Mun interjection maneuver. I carefully plotted my burn so that I would come over the Mun's equator with a minimum altitude of around 20 kilometers. During the burn the LF boosters were depleted and I had to switch over to the lander's engines. But I got my encounter and a good enough periapsis. I proceeded to timewarp until reaching the Mun. As Rhea I approached the next maneuver, where it will get into a small 20 km orbit, Val kept taking gravitational measurements from above the Mun's surface. The ship got into its orbit around an hour later.

My targeted landing site was a large crater near the Mun's equator. I had sent a scanning probe into polar orbit around the Mun prior to the assembly of Kupole Station and found that crater to be rich in resources. As a way to test out ore collecting mechanisms, Rhea I would mine some samples of Munar dirt to bring home. This was supposed to be the job of the Mun Taster, yet that probe proved to be a failure and smashed into the surface.

Val began to burn retrograde to bring Rhea I into the giant crater when fuel levels dropped significantly below 50%. It turned out that the lack of fuel hoses had resulted in a less fuel-efficient mission. There was no choice but to land. Because of the very shallow decent angle, my velocity didn't change so much, meaning that it would take less fuel to land. The craft fired its engines retrograde several times prior to dropping below 7.5 km. Once in that altitude I cut my velocity so that Rhea I would have a slow, vertical drop onto the Mun. This put the landing spot inside a small crater less than 2 kilometers across. Carefully, Val slowed down Rhea I to a soft touchdown at around 7 m/s. Val hopped out of the spacecraft and planted a flag as the first Kerbal on the Mun!

After the flag planting, Val went to work firing up all the science equipment. Gravity, temperature, atmospheric pressure, seismic variations, Mystery Goo interactions, and ore abundance were all mapped and recorded. Meanwhile, Val went out to do some field science. She did the typical EVA Report and Surface Sample before putting those experiments, and all other data collected, into the science storage unit on top of the vessel. The results showed an incredible abundance of resources that would make this crater a prime place for a refueling base. However, I had my OWN fuel problems. Rhea I didn't have enough fuel to return home nor any ore converters on board, so it was stuck there. I began to think up of a rescue mission...

I went back to the Vehicle Assembly Building and made a copy of Rhea I, named Rhea II. From afar it looked the same as its predecessor. The only real difference was that Rhea II had a properly working, fuel-efficient LFB system. Plus the lander itself had a few minor tweaks.

Elson Kerman, a pilot kerbal, was forced against his will assigned this mission. Getting to the Mun was childsplay - yet Elson couldn't stop being a dang wimp. It made the voyage less enjoyable. But he and his bad attitude made it to Val's tiny crater in one piece, even though a solar panel broke. Landing was a bit...complicated. But nonetheless he was there! Now it was time to enact my plan. Valentina will exit her vessel, collect all the science experiments, fly over to Rhea II, and deposit the data into that vessel's experiment holder. Then Elson would leave from Rhea II to Rhea I and stay on the Mun until the assembly of Rhea Base.

The plan was simple enough. Val was able to get the data and head off home, and Elson stayed on the Mun. Although I was able to get him to cheer up - by causing him to tumble across the crater floor for a few hundred meters.

Rhea II and Val were flung into an eccentric orbit around Kerbin. I did a single revolution around the planet before using the last of my fuel at apoapsis to lower my periapsis into Kerbin's atmosphere. From there it took THREE ORBITS to grind down the orbit of Rhea II before it could land. During the third passage, Rhea II's velocity was slowed down enough for it to make a safe landing in Kerbin's Deserts. The craft was recovered, and it got a bunch of science. And I mean a LOT of science - over 3,000 of it! I used all that science to later develop several types of planes, yet I still have to unlock its true potential.

[Jett_Quasar]

Just scrolling through some old photos, and I came across this...  one of my favorite Falcon pics.  I'm working on a new version for V1.2.2, coming soon

Jett

Edited January 16, 2017 by Jett_Quasar

[The Raging Sandwich]

Messenger 15 (A mission to test a spacecraft's capability of flying by multiple celestial body in one fixed trajectory. It was launched towards the Mun first and started a flyby. Once in flyby, it made a course-correction to intercept Minmus. It then flew by Minmus successfully.): Success

Progress 1 (A mission to deliver cargo to KerbinLab 2. It contained a new Megalador solar panel and an EVA command chair to be delivered. This first version contained no RCS thrusters [for some reason]. It successfully rendezvoused with the space station. The two designated Kerbalnauts for the EVA got out and opened the container onboard the ship. Upon getting out the Megalador, the spacecraft exploded into two pieces, sending one Kerbalnaut tumbling. The piece of the ship collided into the other Megalador solar panel already fixed onto the space station. The second Kerbalnaut entered back in the station and the one that was tumbling corrected himself. He then took off whatever was left of the solar panel. A last minute design change was then made to the trusses. The Megaladors would only go on Trusses D and E and would be launched by actual rockets instead of the shuttle to limit any damage. The station is now running on the one solar panel on the KerbinLab 2 module and the two panels on the Laythe 3 spacecraft.): Failure

C7 S8 (A retry of S7. C7 tried launching on the SatLauncher 1 instead of the faulty second rendition. The lander had to use its onboard fuel to finish boosting it to the Mun but it wasn't too bad. It then inserted itself into orbit and landed safely in one of the huge craters dotting the Mun's surface.): Success

SP-2 F-1 (A test flight of a rocket-launched orbital spaceplane. Everything seemed good at first until the rocket unexpectedly tipped over. The plane decoupled to try to land back at the KSC but the insufficient wing area failed to provide lift. The whole entire SP-2 program is now scrapped.): Failure

C7 S9 (A twin mission with S10. A communications satellite launched into Mun orbit.): Success

C7 S10 (A twin mission with S9. Launched in-line with the Mun's orbit directly opposite of the position of the Mun.): Success

Discovery 15 (A mission to land on Minmus, take a surface sample, liftoff back into Kerbin orbit, and wait there until recovered by STS-12. Upon decoupling from the booster, its solar panel failed to deploy causing the lander to fall back to Kerbin and burnup mid-air.): Failure

Messenger 15 launch at sunrise\

Trajectory

Mun at closest approach

Minmus at closest approach

Progress 1 booster separation

In orbit

The aftermath of Progress 1

C7 S8

Landing

Giant mountain at the landing site

The new C7 SatLauncher 2 launching S9

S9 orbital insertion

S10 launch

Messenger 15 launch

Booster separation

Minmus closest approach

Plummeting back to Kerbin

Next planned mission: Truss D (A mission to deliver Truss D to KerbinLab 2. This Truss piece will contain one Megalador solar array. Truss E will be the exact same except for on the other side of the truss assembly.)

[NorthernDevo]

Cool! I just built my first spaceplane!

The Kerbal Kondor (go figure) is my first try at a Shuttle-style pad launch/glide landing aircraft. All fuel; nothing fancy but I was astonished at how well it flew given how badly all my airplanes have (which is why I never play in the SPH much).

The Kondor is sweet, trim and flies real well at about 60 m/s. Launched from the pad with a pair of SRB's she flew sweetly into orbit, decelerated and re-entered without a hitch. I was certain she would become unstable during re-entry but it was smooth and clean.

I pushed the nose over at about 800 m/s and WAAAAHHHHH!!!!! THEN the instability hit; going divergent on all three axes. She wound up in a flat spin about 30KM E of KSC. I used the last whispers of fuel to get the nose down; break the stall and get some wind over the wings. Finally stabilized going straight down at 5000M; pulled out and got ready to blow the control cabin free...established a glide...and plopped her down smartly (after a balloon and a couple of bounces) on the numbers to coast to a gentle stop.

Woohoo! I wuz I'm-PRESSED!

Here's a screenshot of the lovely little beastie:

Edited January 16, 2017 by NorthernDevo

[Triop]

[The Raging Sandwich]

4 minutes ago, Triop said:

That's a way to do it.

[EpicSpaceTroll139]

Been working my coding/K-OS skills up (been a long time since I last did anything with either it or Raspbian (similar to Python)). I have two program projects in the future. The first is a program that I hope will make In-Flight-Refueling practical. Basically the idea is that the tanker will be sitting or the runway, and when the program detects the receiver aircraft coming within, say, 20km (I'm probably going to have some mod running to increase load distance), the tanker will take off and fly up to altitude. I will then dock the receiver aircraft (or if I get really good at K-OS I could go fancy and have some kind of docking assistant), transfer the needed fuel, undock, and then the tanker will fly back and autoland.

So far I have a code that can do takeoff and climb up to about 30-100m (depending on the air density) below a target altitude. I'm still working on how to get it to fly at exactly the altitude I ask. My problem is that the code has it set so that at the target altitude the pitch value is 0. The problem is that my plane needs to be at some slightly >0 pitch to fly level, and this changes depending on airspeed, air density, and between aircraft.* I do not yet have a script for maintaining a certain speed, and I would like to add that.

Spoiler

 

I've been testing... I think it was "dunbarantu" 's autoland code to land my tanker (in these pics it doesn't have the boom bcc it's a PITA to attach it with the claw every time I do testing). It however apparently needs some tweaking to deal with large, sluggish aircraft, because currently it's working more like "autopancakeintorunway".

Spoiler

 

 

As a side thing I have a script that displays demanded engine power vs. what the engines are currently spooled to, the thrust in kN, the fuel consumption, etc. However it can only give the correct thrust in kN and fuel consumption if there is only one engine though, because I haven't yet figured out how to get the total current thrust on the vessel, instead of that of one of its engines.

The second major code I want to write in the future is one that actuates control surfaces on a stock helicopter rotor to give cyclic and maybe collective controls.

 

*If anyone has any tips on how to make this work, please let me know.

Edited January 16, 2017 by EpicSpaceTroll139

[Fearless Son]

I find Minmus one of the most relaxing places to visit.  Got some nice science out of it.  

Built and testing this "Goose" cargo spaceplane.  Got to orbit in this configuration just fine, but it had some problems on reentry.  First of all, the tail fins got ripped off by the atmospheric friction.  Secondly. the ventral RCS blocks melted.  Third, I ran out of liquid fuel before reaching the runway.  Fortunately, even with that damage and lack of fuel, I still managed to glide this thing back to a safe landing.  Revisions of the design included removing the (apparently) redundant tail fins, reducing the amount of oxidizer, and replacing the RCS blocks with smoother inline nozzles.  

Hey, remember that perfect Duna relay I set up a while ago?  The one I was really proud of?  Well, I went to check on it and found it like this:

Aw crap!  I think it bugged out on me.

[MR.Mac]

16 hours ago, AccidentsHappen said:

Wow! Awesome job on the mission. Was it chance that the Mün arch was there, or were you aiming to land on it in the first place? Everytime I've tried to land on it, I slip off and with SAS still pointing retrograde, panic and wonder why I even bothered in the first place. Also, do you mind if I borrow the design of your lander? It looks way cool.

After a bit of looking around and learning how to share craft files, here you go. (I hope the link works, lol ).

This is actually my first time sharing one of my craft files as I have never done this before. Happy Mun landing!

[Frag2000]

5 hours ago, dboi88 said:

[SPOILERS]

Heading off west over the mountains.

Over the sea

And onto the deserts

Approaching the drop zone.

  Reveal hidden contents

Cargo Released

  Reveal hidden contents

Hanging around to ensure Kontainer has landed

  Reveal hidden contents

Back over the deserts

Lining up approach at KCS

Safe Landing

Approaching cargo drop

Transferring Supplies

Looks like really fun missions! What are you up to? Building a base or something!? I am realizing that we can have a lot of fun on Kerbin!

I remember seeing a plane related career missions pack. Maybe I should take a look!

Edited January 16, 2017 by Frag2000

[NorthernDevo]

Update: (No pics yet, sorry; I'll upload ASAP)

Kerbal Kondor Test-flight 2:

Updated vessel's utility by adding a cargo bay, swapped the vernors out for RCS blocks and added an RCS tank in the bay. Changed the SRB's for Skipper-driven liquid boosters.

Launched into orbit easily; dropping boosters upon circularization phase. Fully fueled Kondor in orbit; boosted to 500kms to check fuel endurance. Returned to LKO for re-entry, used same entry profile as flight 1.

Cargo Bay totally threw out Kondor's flight profile; it could not maintain entry attitude. Wound up with AOA of 0 at 1900 m/s. Lost forward RCS blocks almost instantly; no further damage on entry though Bob's nerves were seriously frayed. Jeb thought it as a hoot.

Levelled out at 9500M @ 300m/s approx. 50K E of KSC; began turning back for landing. Needed moderate thrust from engines to maintain altitude; fuel exhaustion brought unrepairable shallow descent.

Flight characteristics still good other than inability ro level out; Kondor reached SC runway before Jeb blew the cockpit free.

Results: Kondor destroyed, crew safe. Groundskeeper livid at the loss of his begonias.

Findings: More elevon authority clearly needed; payload bay puts CG too far forward for this wing design. Back to the drawing board...

 

[dboi88]

1 hour ago, Frag2000 said:

Looks like really fun missions! What are you up to? Building a base or something!? I am realizing that we can have a lot of fun on Kerbin!

I remember seeing a plane related career missions pack. Maybe I should take a look!

Climate change. KSC is at risk so we're getting Baikerbanur up and running.