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MattJL

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Everything posted by MattJL

  1. I've been working on a Skylab replica with functional solar array hinges. They're not perfect, but it does accomplish the goal of unfolding the solar array "wings" correctly: In the VAB. The hinge (thermometer + RCS bearing) and attachment setup is strong enough that it can survive launch without struts/autostrut. Detail of the hinge. Once in space, the small docking port that holds the solar array wing parallel to the body is decoupled, allowing the part to swing freely. I've hidden a small landing gear (wheel) inside the structural tube in order to help kick the array out to the correct position, or else it just sits there. It usually swings around a bit aggressively until the ports click together. A side effect of this is that the arrays never quite lock into a perfect 90-degree orientation, but that's fine enough by me. Docked! You can see what I mean about it not quite being perfect. Arrays all deployed, now awaiting crew. Just for kicks, Skylab as it actually was. Those structural panels really are handy!
  2. This should be an interesting one... So I'm currently working on updating my ships from 1.4, and after screwing up and reaching for the trusty Ctrl and Z keys, I found that the part model on the FTL series fuel tanks reset! This appears to happen even when starting from scratch: I threw together a simple ship. I put something on the top so I can undo a step. The tanks revert back to their original models. What on Earth could be causing this? They're persistent enough that even when I load a saved ship, the models aren't retained. Have I contaminated my save by bringing over old .craft files? EDIT: Just discovered that this happens even when reloading a save.
  3. Tried my hand at building a Model T: Not perfect, but it sure is charming.
  4. Was updating some old craft files (yeah, still), when I stumbled across an old roadster that I made way back when: Armed with the ability to deploy parachutes from command seats, and some fond childhood memories, I knew what had to be done. Behold, Not-Quite Chitty Chitty Bang Bang! Had I better building skills, Kerbie the Love Bug would be next on my list. EDIT: And had another flash of inspiration...
  5. Been working on a heavy-lift Saturn V variant (25(S)U, specifically) to lob NERVA stages into orbit for a future Duna expedition: And did some docking tests with a pair of NERVA stages in orbit: I'm not sure which one I like more - the orange, or the white. Feedback desired!
  6. Did some driving around on the Mun: Discovered that there's a third camera angle in the Mk1 Crew Cabin by accident. Kind of a cool find, but I'm sure everyone else has seen this before:
  7. Just a simple, silly little thing that I think would add a lot to the game, in terms of user experience. I enjoy the challenge of doing missions entirely from cockpit view, and going "outside" to do EVAs breaks the immersion (and I feel like I'm cheating when I glance at the altimeter). Plus, it'd be something else to interact with.
  8. After a semester-long hiatus from KSP, I finally set out to update all of my ships for 1.4 and beyond. (I swear the latest version's 1.4.3, but for some reason, I'm still stuck in 1.4.1). But I've also been working on updating my Duna lander to something more cosmetically attractive/functional. It's based heavily off of what von Braun presented to the Space Task Group for what would turn out to be his final Mars expedition proposal in 1969: I'm particularly proud of the ladders that run through the heat shield, which I unfortunately don't have a great picture of. But I do have a better shot of the habitat built into the descent stage:
  9. @Servo I happened across your WIP von Braun-inspired Duna mission the other day, and I've been absolutely stumped as to how you did the nuclear shuttles.  Is it two liquid fuel fuselages offset into one another just so to avoid Z-fighting, more than two, or something else entirely?

    I also seem to recall that you mentioned difficulties docking... I've found that for a multi-port kind of thing, it's best to have the two ports around the center of mass with about a port-sized gap between them, in order to avoid any problems with them sticking.  The farther out they are from one another, the harder it gets for the magnets to twist the thing into the right orientation.

    1. Servo

      Servo

      You got the shuttle part dead on - it's a trick I learned a while ago to make round mk3 LF only tanks. 

      When I redo the docking system, I'll take your suggestions into account. 

    2. MattJL

      MattJL

      Neat!  I'll have to consider it as a technique for future craft.  Also, that led to the discovery that LF-only tanks are more mass efficient than regular tanks with the LO drained out of them - independent delta-v for my stage, with the Mk3 LF tanks, is about 20% higher for about 20% less mass (and two fewer NERVs).  Not something I knew before, probably old hat to everyone else.

  10. Just a short, simple mission. In honor of the 49th anniversary of Apollo 8's, I decided to recreate it with the stock Saturn V that I've been working on for the past two months. SA-503 stands tall on the pad, with Bill, Jeb, and Bob nestled safely in the CSM. Liftoff! The S-IC thunders skywards, burning literal tons of propellant every second. The five KS-25 "Vector" engines on the S-II take over. Mere minutes later, the S-II exhausts its propellant, and the S-IVB handles the task of circularization. The single Vector on the S-IVB burns to near-depletion to send Apollo 8 on a course to the Moon. The SLA is blown clear of the S-IVB, freeing Apollo 8 from the stage. Looking back on the S-IVB after it performs a short burn to put it on a Munar impact trajectory. The additional tankage visible at the top of the stage is a mass simulator for the LEM (which IRL wouldn't be flight ready for another two months). Apollo 8 enters Munar orbit after a six-hour coast. Surveying the surface of the Mun. Kerbin rising above the desolate surface of the Mun catches the three Kerbonauts by surprise - a blue jewel against an endless sea of space. Jeb rushes to get the camera. "Oh, my God! Look at that picture over there! Here's Kerbin coming up. Wow, is that pretty!" - paraphrased from Bill Anders. The best shot of the bunch, cropped and rotated to match Earthrise as best as possible. Hope you enjoyed this little read. Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all of you out there!
  11. Wow, lots of comments since I last checked in. Impressive work all around! Updating the leaderboard right now.
  12. I'll have to take it on, then, I think I've got every craft needed for the challenge. (Also finally got the SIM bay where I want it, test pictures incoming). That Harrier is mind-boggling. How on Earth do you rotate all the jets simultaneously? I'm assuming they're paired off, but that seems like a real trip to fly. Thread-relevant, I just ran a "Gemini to the Mun" run with a lander I prepared earlier. Not fully satisfied with this yet, more revisions needed. Happy with the Saturn C-3, though. EDIT: SIM bay test:
  13. Been working on a stock Saturn V/Apollo spacecraft replica for the last two weeks-ish, and just had the opportunity to test out the LESS/Long-Range Flyer this afternoon. (LEM and CSM got a major overhaul as well, which I'm pretty happy with). It's loaded with excess propellant from the descent stage (~15% residuals for a full load, I think). Surprisingly skippy little thing; I was able to run a rendezvous with the CSM while only burning about two of the toroidal tanks worth of prop. Hitching a ride! The CSM is based heavily off of @Servo's absolutely fantastic design from the Apollo Applications Program challenge. I added some tweaks to allow for a jettisonable SIM bay cover, but that's still a work in progress (test below). Go check Servo's design out, it's beautiful.
  14. Great! I went ahead and rushed my entry. I've been working on re-doing every single Apollo mission (and then some) in stock, and with Apollo 15 being next on my list, this was the perfect opportunity to enter (as it's the first one that fulfills most of the requirements). SCORE: 215 POINTS Apollo 15: Kerbkind Must Explore. Imgur album is a bit image-heavy, so I also pulled out some highlights: Liftoff of Apollo 15. SLA panels jettisoned for transposition, docking, and extraction. Munar Orbit Insertion with the SPS on Endeavour, the CSM. "Falcon, you are go for PDI." Driving on the Mun. Subsatellite launch. Almost home! GOALS (starting with +50): The 3 Little Kerbals +20 A Flag on the Mun?! +5 Mun Buggie +15 Abort! Abort! +15 (Proof) Return for Free +10 No More MEM! +5 Up, Up, and Away +20 Look on the Bright Side! +10 Shut Away From The World +5 Down Under +20 Splashies! +5 MEM Hugger +10 SubSat +10 Parachute Problems - Have 3 main chutes and 2 drogues on the CM +10 Saturn-Alike - Make the launch vehicle (LV) resemble the Saturn V (S5) Additional Goals: I was roving on the Mun one day... Proper Shakedown - Drive beyond 2 kilometers of your lander +10 Munar Scientific Experiments Package (MunSEP) Minimalist - Deploy one MunSEP at the landing site +5 TOTAL SCORE: 215 points
  15. Are we allowed to make more than one entry into this challenge? I've got a finished design, but also a work-in-progress based off of that one that's got a ways to go.
  16. I'm sorry for neglecting the thread for the past two weeks! (In my defense, I've been busy). Will be updating the leaderboard in a few moments. Love the entries so far - @GDJ, that roadster looks absolutely beautiful. Sorry about the terrain giving you grief. @DoctorDavinci, I've been following your run in my off time. Loved the car, and fine job on beating the clock. @Azimech, fantastic entry all-around! I look forward to seeing more entries, this is fun to watch.
  17. Ah, cool. Yeah, 30-45 minutes sounds about right (I estimate 37 minutes from dead reckoning my run). Very impressed by the average speed so far. I think the highest I ever hit was 32 m/s, and that was rolling downhill.
  18. What's your method for doing the water part of the run? Assuming a hidden Juno or something along those lines? I found that the water crossing was the most fuel-intensive part of the journey (something like 100+ units of fuel for a wimpy 20 km of travel).
  19. Impressive! And you're attempting a trip back, too? I really can't wait to see this in full.
  20. Oof, ouch. Yeah, I had my fair share of wipeouts, I'd imagine the situation to get much worse at that speed. Glad to hear that the autopilot works out! You don't have to upload a video if you don't want to. It'd be cool, but don't sweat it if it's too much pain - I'll take your word for it from an Imgur album. Agreed. I just felt kinda bad about not being aware of the other challenges. But hopefully that's behind us; I'm looking forward to seeing that rig! EDIT: Just caught that rig post. Looks beautiful; can't wait to see it take on the run!
  21. I look forward to your results! Oh, no! Though I guess this is in some ways easier and some ways harder than that race, because it's only a one-way trip at the expense of being limited to, basically, just fuel cells. And one vehicle vs three. To my credit, this is the first time I've been on the forums since late April 2016 (and I haven't played since November 2015!). I wasn't able to find anyone who had done a fuel cell-only run to KSC2, which is what inspired this challenge. How do you propose remedying this?
  22. Looks sharp! Autopilot is fine, don't worry about that. I'm assuming that you're aiming for the Time Trial class, or do you plan on refueling?
  23. Glad to see that people are interested in pulling this off. I look forward to seeing your designs! If you can do a round trip on fuel cells alone, I'll be extremely impressed. Basically warrants its own category.
  24. A disastrous disco-themed Take Your Kids to Work Day has resulted in the destruction of all the solar panels stored at Kerbal Space Center! With a high-profile launch coming up too quickly to make new ones, and the entire ground crew boogieing down with the sudden plethora of disco balls, it's up to one unwilling Kerbal to drive out to the stockpile kept at the second Space Center at Baikerbanur, over 2,000 kilometers away! The challenge is, on the surface, simple: Build a car or other wheeled vehicle and drive from KSC to Baikerbanur (also called "KSC 2," "Inland Space Center," or "Inland KSC"), which is located at 20° 39′ 26″ N, 146° 25′ 14″ W. (Don't worry, I've included a map in this post, second picture in my demonstration run - it's at the end of the red line). (ADDENDUM: Thanks to help from @James Kerman, I now have a straight-line distance estimate of 763,962 m, though that is mostly over water. I'll try to work out the great-circle distance over the next couple days). However, it wouldn't be a challenge without some rules. Your vehicle must: Use fuel cells (and thus liquid oxidizer/liquid fuel) as a power source. Use said fuel cells as a power source for the majority of the trip. Remain on land for the majority of the trip (limited water crossing is allowed). Drive the complete distance from KSC to Baikerbanur. Have at least one Kerbal on board. Your vehicle may: Use another source of propulsion for crossing bodies of water (i.e., jet engines). Use batteries to store electric charge. Use a command chair or a command pod of your choice (command chairs are encouraged!) Use mod parts (though nothing horribly unrealistic, like a fuel cell that converts 0.00001 units of fuel and oxidizer into 10000 units of electric charge), though see below. Refuel, though see below. Drop parts off along the way, like spent propellant tanks or unneeded pontoons. Your vehicle may not: Use RTGs, solar panels, or related parts as a power source. Collect parts along the way (i.e., pick up a pontoon set that was "left behind" at the shoreline). Use another vehicle as assistance (i.e., dropped from a plane or sailed on a boat). Transfer your Kerbal to another vehicle (i.e., tag-teaming halfway there). Reloading (F5/F9) is, of course, totally acceptable, but you get major props if you manage to do this all in one shot. Required proof is limited to a nice and friendly Imgur album. The start/finish line is considered to be the launch pad at both KSC and Baikerbanur, though leaving from the runway at KSC is fine as well. There are two main categories to be judged: Stock and Modded. Vehicles built entirely out of stock parts, though in a save that features mods that don't otherwise alter the behavior of stock parts (i.e., Trajectories, SVE, texture replacements, the like) are considered to be Stock. There are, likewise, two ways to win in this challenge: Time Trial and Starting Mass. Time Trial is exactly what it says on the tin - have the fastest possible drive time from KSC to Baikerbanur. The current record is 1 day (6 hours) 34 minutes 25 seconds. Refueling is not allowed for Time Trial contestants. Starting Mass hopefuls simply have to have the lowest mass car, as given in the VAB/SPH readout. The current record is 6.026 tons. Refueling is allowed for Starting Mass contestants, whether by actually going to a "gas station" landed beforehand or using an ore refinery. Savefile edits for refueling are not allowed. Rule Tweak: I'm really, really impressed with the mass of the cars so far, so I'm bending the rules a bit (for now) and judging all entrants against one another by starting mass in addition to how fast they make the run. Extraplanetary Kerbball Runs (driving 2,000 km or more across another planet) are welcome, and will be judged as their own category. Below is my demonstration run, to show that this is possible - albeit just barely! https://imgur.com/a/eRk8d Below is the leaderboard, which I'll try to update as soon as I can: Time Trial (Stock) Urus28: 3 hr 59 m 27 s Marschig: 5 hr 6 m 39 s DoctorDavinci: 6 h 34 m 25 s Azimech: 6 h 35 m 17 s - - Starting Mass (Stock) Marschig: 3.150 t Azimech: 4.270 t DoctorDavinci: 5.866 t Urus28: 13.897 t - - Time Trial (Modded) - - - - - - - - - - Starting Mass (Modded) - - - - - - - - - - Safe Driving!
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