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What did you do in KSP1 today?


Xeldrak

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Parameciumkid's journal entry for today: nothing special. I'm continuing my efforts to re-clear the science tree, the difficulty of which seems to have increased slightly due to rearrangement of some parts on it by the devs. Can't really complain though - it was a nice surprise getting both sizes of circular probe core in one unlock. I finished my derpy Minmus mission and Mun Goo mission - on both of which I forgot vital parts. On the Minmus mission I only found out AFTER the two-week trek to Minmus that apparently science labs don't work unless something else on the ship is acting as a control module, i.e. a probe core or cockpit. So my crew of two was insufficient to actually USE the big fat science lab I'd hauled all the way out there. Oh well, lessons learned for next time. And on the Mun Goo mission I forgot to put any solar panels on the lander, so it ended up running out of power every time I tried to return it to the orbiting ship (I was doing it semi-Apollo style, but with multiple landings). After having to chase it down three times I got bored and decided I'd harvested enough science for one partially botched mission.

Moral of the story: Double-check that all parts are included!

P.S. Almost forgot the dumbest mistake of all: my Minmus lander had a full supply of Monopropellant for docking - but no RCS thrusters! xP Please tell me I'm not the only one who's made this mistake.

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well, I learned how to lift big things without asparagus staging: use a bigger rocket. I core the first stage with a 5m rocket, rated at 10K trust. 4 boosters, 3.75m, titans. payload is 180t, powered by the new 3.75m engine, more because of how short it is than any other reason.

http://imgur.com/a/hxZDf#0

Take the #0 out of your album's BBC code.

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C8g6Jcd.png

Started my new save file up. One of the first things I did was design the Surveyor-I light jet. This jet can be flown as an unmanned probe, or with up to two kerbals onboard. You can see Bill riding in the external passenger seat, while Jeb sits in the cockpit. The duo is about to launch into the sunrise and go to the Old Airfield, where a small crew recovery base will eventually be assembled.

A green control tower means that aircraft on the runway and in the area are free to do as they please. A yellow tower means caution, usually due to an upcoming launch or important flight, and a red tower means the airspace is closed. As this was the first manned flight of my new save file, the airspace was clear as could be.

tyyUo2U.png

Edited by tstehler1
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Well, more what did I do yesterday. Some rather tricky docking.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7123/13764025133_3138b4c44c_c.jpg

Note to self: Drop tanks being transferred from ship to ship should have TWO docking ports.

You could also built some RCS powered micro tugs that dock to a tank, dock it to the desired target and then detach. I use those tugs a lot, mostly for orbital construction. They´ll save you time and nerves.

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I'd still need two docking ports on the drop tank, or else a claw on the tug. (I had the claw available for this actually, but started out doing the docking without it and decided to stubbornly persist.)

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I did an engine test with the captured Class E asteroid, and the tug was able to handle the asteroid just fine. The test accidentally lowered the periapsis from 77 km to below surface, meaning that the asteroid is now on a collision course. Probably. The game doesn't show the trajectory inside Kerbin's SoI anymore, so I'll have to wait until the asteroid gets close enough before doing anything.

Meanwhile, it felt like a good idea to start building the LKO bases around the smaller captured asteroids. I launched a docking hub, a habitation module, a debris handler, and a fuel tanker to the 160 km base.

asteroid_base_1.jpeg

When the tanker arrived, I decided to keep the upper stage around as an extra fuel tank. While the tanker itself was designed to move around with four tiny 24-77 engines, the upper stage has a potentially dangerous KR-2L engine. To avoid nasty surprises, I checked several times that I had remembered to deactivate the big engine.

tanker_launch.jpeg

And I still can't get over the fact that I can now launch heavy stuff with rockets that look like rockets.

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I have put a Jeep on Duna. It's pretty good & stable! Equipped with a powerful gyroscope that helps to regain control in any situation! Even when travelling downhill at 40m/s !!! I'll make a video about it... someday...

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Also... this is my 100th post!!!

I'm ready to recieve my million (preferably american) bucks now.

Edited by Overfloater
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I tried to make an VTVL SSTO rocket. Results were... Mixed. Click the images for full size.

13772893883_73d1db6ae7.jpg

Lift-off! Flies pretty darn good all things considered. I really like the new SLS quad-engine block, it doesn't have the TWR of a KW Titan (my usual 3.75m standard) but the ISP more than makes up for it.

13773239854_0436bb769b.jpg

Almost there! I used to be a firm believer in the 10km gravity turn rule, then I installed FAR and found that most of my rockets preferred 15km. THEN I messed around with a few manual launches and found that <1km was best.

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Circularizing. There are mod parts on here, but all of the engines are stock which is a bit weird for me and sandbox mode. The only real non-stock parts are the HGR 1.875m tanks and adapters, MechJeb, and the two DRE heatshields.

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Made a 75km orbit quite handily, but getting up was the easy part. Now for the hard part: Landing.

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By far the longest and hottest reentry I've ever seen in KSP. Shock heating made itself known at around 38km and lasted until a little less than 10km, and it was STILL traveling over a kilometer per second at that point. Both heatshields were totally stripped of ablative material by the end, and the main engines hit nearly 1500 degrees Celsius.

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Well it got down to around 30m/s before splashdown, and had a TWR of nearly 5 at the end, so I know it CAN land. Executing a landing is a whole other problem. I hit the engines a tad too late and the whole stack disintegrated on landing. Good news though: It had more than 1000dV to spare, so provided I get the landing right it CAN be used to carry cargo.

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Today, I was able to test my Kinetic Asteroid Impact Discouragement Device and in the process, save Kerbin and life as we know it from a D-Class Asteroid on a collision course!

While it is definitely not the most efficient or sophisticated way of dealing with impactors, it gets the job done easily and quickly which was essential for this mission. The asteroid was discovered only slightly farther out than Minmus and would impact Kerbin in a few days. I hastily constructed a launch system to propel my KAID device towards the asteroid.

I waited until the launch site was almost directly below the asteroid impact location and launched up towards the asteroid, completely skipping LKO. After a long burn, I was hurtling at over 4km/s towards my target. I started off making course corrections by hand but due to the precision required, I allowed mechjeb to take over once I got within 100km.

Photo Album:

<iframe class="imgur-album" width="100%" height="550" frameborder="0" src="http://imgur.com/a/TOMpM/embed"></iframe>

This mission was a huge success, I still can't believe the asteroid is now in a stable orbit. I'm planning on creating a video of the KAID Device in action and adding it to my Youtube channel. This update has proven to be lots of fun!

Edited by jaredkzr
Grammar
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The orbital insertion stage of my Return to the Mun mission is big enough bring lander and service module to Mun, into its orbit and fool around some more. Three new recruits on their way to fame and glory.

Made sure my Munar Kethane base has automatic control units installed and told the operator to return from his rover field trip and prepare to go home.

Design process of the Explorer II - which is actually the third ship, but the second got stuck with the working title "Duna Transfer", nicknamed Duna Explorer - comes along nicely.

SelectRoot is invaluable for attaching the otherwise unattachable!

Still unsure if I should go for an orbital assembly or just shoot it all up in one piece ... although I remembered the good old Quantum Struts strut guns, which would make orbital assembly of otherwise strutless wobble ships a lot easier.

Kinetic Asteroid Impact Discouragement Device

I was about to give rep for the name alone! Now that worked out really well, did it not?! :D Seems as if I underestimated the "impact" of impacts.

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Today I used skipper engines, 1 Poodle engine and Rockomax X200-32 tanks to hurl a kerbal to Ike, land, get some science and get back home. I had about 750 m/s of Delta V left when I returned to Kerbin for landing so I couldn't make any last-minute stops on the way back although now that my career save has mainsail engines unlocked thanks to that science the launch should be a bit easier on the next mission (Launch power/weight ratio was 1.05)

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Well lots of stuff!

1. Testing Rover Designs for a Moho mission

2. Planning Moho mission with lots of Eve and Moho flyby's to slow down :confused:

3. Testing new Rovemate parts (Yay self promotion ftw! :sticktongue: )

4. Trying not to go broke with MCE

5. Avoiding Kessler Syndrome with 24+ satellites in low orbit

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