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What did you do in KSP1 today?


Xeldrak

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This has been a busy day, full of SCIENCE!

<iframe class="imgur-album" src="http://imgur.com/a/8BIYH/embed" frameborder="0" height="550" width="100%"></iframe>

Edit: Check here to get the head (it's a 3 Kerbals command pod).

Edited by Lilleman
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Tested jet boosters. Once in orbit, the payload consisted of the top 4 stages (payload proper, monopropellant stage, LV-N stage and the RAPIER stage). The bottom stage was still attached & some dV remaining. Of course the jet boosters were jettisoned in flight. The support legs were jettisoned shortly after launch. Edit: launch engines are 4 aerospikes.

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Transferring my crew back to the planet from a failed early science project.

Transferring the crew from my Minmus science vessel back to the planet.

Start building a vessel to deploy a base on Minmus with Kathane and ExtraplanetaryLaunchpads for fun.

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I launched something with an upper stage TWR of .67. It took quite a few tries to get right, in the end I found the following worked:

Steeper-than-normal first stage ascent, pitching around 60 degrees at 10 km and staying there.

Follow orbit prograde on the upper stage until apoapsis.

Once at apopapsis, keep the same heading.

I did find that when I was nearly circularised the apopasis started racing away while the periapsis was still in the atmosphere and I had to make a radial burn to fix that. Not sure what the solution is there. In the end I made a stable orbit with about 6 m/s to spare, and am now rendezvousing the ship with a space station on the RCS. (It's a tug to help assemble the station so it has LOTS of monoprop thankfully.)

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This has been a busy day, full of SCIENCE!

<iframe class="imgur-album" src="http://imgur.com/a/8BIYH/embed" frameborder="0" height="550" width="100%"></iframe>

Edit: Check here to get the head (it's a 3 Kerbals command pod).

I'm just going to say.... That's sill kinda creepy..... :P And the last pic is disturbing.....

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I am attempting something I thought of while imagining things not to do. It's a box plane for anomaly hunting that carries a 4-Kerbal 6-wheeled rover in the back with tracking equipment. That might not sound so strange until you notice that it also has a bunch of parachutes for a vertical landing, and it's built out of wings. Cheaty? Maybe. But until I get aerodynamics that make sense, I don't care anymore. I've crashed too many well designed planes to not try this. I flew for way too long and crashed one of my Valkyrie series spaceplanes while trying to stick a tight landing near this particular anomaly (they're really only good for flying straight and fast -- to orbit and back with no stops in between). Advantage of this new plane other than the parachutes is that it can land softly at a mere 25 m/s unloaded and take off around 75m/s. Trying to land a Valkyrie below 80m/s you might as well not even have wings because it's going to keep going the general direction it already was (flying sideways isn't good) while dropping like a rock, and don't even think about nosing up on takeoff before it hits 150m/s or above.

"Because screw logic, that's why."

KSP2014-07-1321-50-24-45.jpg~original

KSP2014-07-1321-44-06-68.jpg~original

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Started a Death ball space station :)

That brings back memories. I made something similar, but with all the engine nozzles pointing away from the center. It fell apart under its own weight before I even got a chance to launch it. But it looked nice in the VAB. :confused:

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My last Munar flight! It's been a great campaign.

I try to keep some congruency with flight numbers I guess (I won't be able to anymore since NASA kind of left off at the Moon back in 1972) so obviously my first Mun landing was dubbed Kerpollo 11.

But seeing as there are 15 biomes on the moon, I couldn't just leave off at 17. So Kerpollo 25 was my last Munar landing. A nice number if you ask me.

Now, off to Minmus, and beyond...

aqV0967.jpg

P.S: Stole the insignia from NASA's ISS program, but it looked nice, and had my number on it.

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I have put up few communications satellites in Kerbin's orbit. Now it is time to develop more powerful boosters to put few in orbits around Mun and Minmus

NM1RRj4.jpg

I managed to pack this thing just barely inside 1.25m extended fairing from KW.

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Finally got Realism Overhaul running, did some science and designed the lifter and payload for my first orbiter. Been naming rockets in this save after MLS (Major League Soccer) teams

U2yVYEc.png

Gotta install MechJeb, thoug, cause Kerbal Engineer LIES about TWR.

Edited by Roastduck
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A few Mun-related things, including another budget cut.

First, some design, construction and testing work for an Apollo-like mission I plan to run. CSM with 3-man capsule, two satellites, separate ascent and descent stage, 2-man can on lander, boxes on the descent stage that contain small rovers... All that remains is the lifter. Had to do a lot of fiddling to get the rovers to deploy properly... Might not work out too well if it's landed on a slope, but I'm confident that at least one rover will exit the lander safely.

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The lander with its rovers deployed

I performed a little testing to figure out how hard a powered landing on Kerbin was, before I decided that the cost of the parachute is well worth the easy, fuel-free landing.

Then, the budget for single-man Mun landing was slashed again. This time, I had to get the cost of landing a man on Mun and returning him safely under 10k funds. Having seen an all-SRB lifter in this thread, I was inspired. Using SRBs only, perhaps I can cut out the expense of the lift core. A larger transfer/crasher stage could finish circularisation and get our man to Mun.

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So, first I tried with three FL-T100 and a 48-7S. Also, the SRBs could not decouple from each other, and the outer ones had thrust limited to 66, the inner one to 33.

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It wasn't easy, but I managed to get orbit. Mun orbit didn't take much more, but fuel was very, very low. The crasher stage ran out as I lowered the orbit, but I was confident that I had enough to land safely, if not enough to get back up.

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I attempted to get orbit a couple of times. On the last attempt, I had Dozer get out and try to push, but either I wasn't doing it properly or there was no purchase to be had, as I couldn't get the capsule moving. Eventually, I decided to just have Dozer use his jetpack to get orbit himself and leave the lander to plummet back to its doom.

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Then, a rescue mission. A small probe-driven ship with an empty capsule, a bunch of monopropellant and some RCS thrusters should be able to rendezvous closely enough for him to grab the ladder and get in. Then, it could return with its parachute. I put it atop the lifter for the 17902 to make things simpler and ensure it could get Mun orbit. The lift core was left on a Mun-suborbital trajectory, and with a bit of fiddling, I got the rendezvous and brought Dozer home.

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Don't know what happened to the instruments... the navball was fine, as was everything in the IVA view, but I think everything else locked at the point Dozer got in in Mun orbit. Also, couldn't click anything in map view.

Then, after some redesigning (the addition of a tank and ability to decouple the boosters being particularly important changes), the 9222 was created. Costing only 9222 funds (though I believe I can trim it further), this ship can perform a Mun mission if everything goes well.

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The gravity turn being performed well is very important with this ship... You can't affect the throttle, after all.

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It only takes a little over a tank to circularise at 90km. Then, orbit until burning for Mun encounter.

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After a pair of burns at periapse, Mun orbit is brought down to ~10km circular, and it's time to deorbit. The transfer stage is still here, but not for long. It's enough to deorbit, at least.

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Then, landing. Had to be particularly careful not to waste fuel here... There's a little leeway in efficiency of descent, but it's not substantial.

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Back up into a similarly low orbit before the escape burn...

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And home safe with 1.37 liquid fuel remaining. But I think I can run this mission even cheaper (under 9000!). A quick calculation using the wiki's delta-v equation makes me think that swapping the LV-909 and small decoupler for another 48-7S - tiny decoupler pair would actually result in a small increase in the delta-v of the transfer stage, keeping the mission in the realms of possibility. That aside, perhaps some of the four struts are nonessential. Or maybe I can do without the reaction wheels. But the 'chute stays.

That'll have to wait. Mun return for <10k will do for now. According to the wiki (didn't make a note of it myself), the Jumbo-64 tank costs 12500 funds. So, I can do a Mun return mission for cheaper than a single part (though it is the most expensive one).

Edited by Concentric
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Today I used the RAPIER engine for something other than a spaceplane SSTO. I made a lander and landed on the Mun with the Original 3.

screenshot8.png

And one of my Warp Drive Beacon arrived at Moho.

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I'm preparing the ship with the Warp Drive in orbit around Kerbin at the moment and will make the Jump pretty soon.

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I finished the 2nd version of my first successful station. I'm not sure why I get the feeling my first one was better. Something about the more streamlined look just... feels better.

Old one:

isWJuWj.png

New one:

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I plan on adding senior docks on the ends eventually (even if I have to replace the whole fuel storage compartments in order to do it). I just haven't unlocked those tech-tiers yet.

Edited by PTNLemay
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