What did you do in KSP1 today?

[CatastrophicFailure]

I bodged up some Kerbal ejection seats featuring Omicron Flying Space Car parts by @Climberfx (awesome parts btw, needs stock ejection seats!)

Then spent entirely too much time making this hastily-edited video:

 

[Squidiness]

I sent a rover to the Duna system for the first time, and it may be on a collision course with Ike... But it's cool

[Brownhair2]

Arrived at Tidus:

 

Now, I'd just like to take a moment to point out one of the crew reports:

Quote

The thick atmosphere and Kerbin like gravity will make flying planes at Tidus a fun experience!

Mhm.

> 1.2 g

> .6 atm

Yeah no sure whatever you say.

Well after falling out of that perfect-for-planes sky a couple of times I've managed to land, and wow, Thomry is glowing

Was it really that hot? It only reached a nice, pleasant 1380 K during re-entry. It's not that hot...

Edited January 3, 2017 by Brownhair2

[Triop]

Today, perfect parking...

[Baconation]

Posted part 4 of my 1.2.2 unmodded career video series here!

[Jett_Quasar]

Played around with my SSTO version of the U-wing

Jett

[beamthegreat]

Couldn't find any semi-realistic SPRINT missile in KSP so I decided to make my own. Zero to Mach 10 (3,400 m/s) in a little under 50 seconds.

 

 

[ScarM]

Still perfecting my modular drilling platform.

 

 

Edited January 3, 2017 by ScarM
edit image location

[Carl]

Quote

Couldn't find any semi-realistic SPRINT missile in KSP so I decided to make my own. Zero to Mach 10 (3,400 m/s) in a little under 50 seconds.
 

Still about 40 secodns short of the real thing, but thats not your fault really.

[Fury1SOG]

Mechjeb pinpoint landing!

[Mjarf]

We took a trip to Duna and en route to Duna we had an encounter of the Kerbal kind:

At first I freaked out a bit "what?! UFO's?!!", but after closer inspection it turned out to be a graphical bug, those are actually the bottoms of the thermal generators and the center fuel tank:

It was fun though, Squad should definitely implement UFO's in the next update, or is there a mod for it perhaps?

Edited January 3, 2017 by Mjarf

[Kertech]

I didn't build any Mir station

 

[MrCalvinator]

I did a thing on eve for the first time!

[lodger]

Well, after having spent the past few weeks learning how to build spaceplanes and visiting Minmus with them, I resumed my ASES operations and here's what I did up until today:

ASES KOS 1 (Kerbin orbital station) was moved to low Mun orbit utilizing the ASES NE-1 nuclear engine block (basically 3x NERVs  and a bunch of Mk1 Lf fueslages) and renamed to ASES MOS 1. After that, a satellite carrying a M700 surface scanner was sent to a polar orbit around Mun to check out ore-rich regions. And eventually, ASES launched Bill's latest invention to the munar surface: the automated ASES ISRU 1 Unit. This multi-purpose unit will dig for ore and convert it to fuel on the spot. Once fully loaded (with fuel and ore) it returns to ASES MOS 1 usually with some 550 units of Lf and about 600 units of Ox left in the tanks. The ore will then be converted in-orbit to fill a storage tank. But have a look for yourself:

 

below you can see (right to left) ASES MOS 1, the storage tank, the NE-1 engine block to which the ISRU 1 Unit is docked. At the moment, ASES kerbonauts Wilburry Kerman and Wenthis Kerman are the active crew on board.

 

...and here's the ISRU 1 Unit in action:

Edited January 3, 2017 by lodger

[HalcyonSon]

On 12/29/2016 at 3:18 PM, Firemetal said:

Ah no. At that point, I didn't understand torque very well. I put those on to be able to control it. It surprised me to see all the tricks I could do with it but the main design of the base stayed the same. Good idea for a later Minimus colony though!.

Fire

That's what I did to retrieve a Kerbal and his Capsule on the Mun.  Three 1.25m Reaction Wheels will easily lift one of my Klaw vessels and a Mk1 Capsule in Mun gravity.  dV was lacking though...  Somersaulting across Mun surface is a legitimate propulsion method, isn't it?

On 12/30/2016 at 0:57 PM, cubinator said:

This is what I did today:

 

 

On 12/30/2016 at 1:36 PM, eloquentJane said:

I know how big they are. I didn't realize how long the runway is. In any case, it's very impressive.

Also, wasn't there a Kopernicus mod a while ago that added the Death Star...

I just placed flags at either end of my runway to improve navigation from "it's somewhere around this continent" to "Yes, there it is!"  The flags end up about 2.5 km apart to avoid being cleared on vessel load.

On 12/31/2016 at 8:54 AM, KerrMü said:

Very cool!  Looks like a Rutan VariEZ.

On 12/31/2016 at 4:06 PM, Fearless Son said:

Bring transit vessel into a circular orbit.  Detach one satellite and get it clear of the transit vessel.  Set that satellite as a rendezvous target. Set a maneuver node, and reduce the apoapsis.  Set a second maneuver node to re-circularize the orbit on the phase of the first maneuver node.  Look for the "Target at closest approach" line.  Adjust the first maneuver node until the closest approach line is about one-third of the way around the planet.  Use that first maneuver node as a guide to reduce the apoapsis.  Detach the second satellite on the next apoapsis pass after the burn.  Re-circularize and repeat for the last satellite.  

Let the game take care of the math for you.

I just set up a comm network around Mun... my first time trying it.  Thought I had it figured out, and dropped my three satellites at 20 km.  One per orbit over the space of three orbits.  Not even close to linking with each other, or being at 120 degree intervals... I had fouled up the carrier orbital timing and ended up with 180 intervals.  Got that sorted with a couple small reboosts (luckily each commsat had 2,000 m/s dV).  Still didn't link up.  Turns out the proper altitude is closer to 200 km.  Reboosted all three commsats to 250 km and circularized, and somehow that interval dropped to 40 degrees.  Dropped the first commsat to a lower periapsis to speed it up and the third to a higher apoapsis to slow it down.  Exactly one orbit later, I circularized at 120 degree intervals.  Limited the engines to 1% thrust, and pinned the orbital period (thanks KER) to within 0.001 second.  

Next time I do it will be with a 3:2 resonance orbit around Minmus.  I'll place the carrier in an elliptical orbit with periapsis at the correct altitude, drop the commsat at periapsis and circularize at 2/3 the period of the carrier, and drop the next two commsats at each of the next two periapses.  (For example, commsat period would be 40 minutes and the carrier period 60 minutes).

Since I had a stack of contracts to complete around Mun, my commsat carrier also included a (initially unmanned) rescue lander and four micro unmanned rovers.  Each rover and commsat was built around identical cores, so each had about 2,000 m/s dV - perfect for small contract work at varying polar orbits.  One of the rovers was expended collecting temperature and pressure information at various altitudes and inclinations without even reaching the surface.  I used the rescue lander to pick up Romy Kerman from the surface, collect some Midlands science, and immediately put Romy to work collecting polar orbit crew reports... which meant that he had to push the lander into a return trajectory... which will require the launch of a Klaw to pull it into Kerbin's atmosphere.  Trying to drop a 2.6 Mm Periapsis to aerobraking altitude is no job for a Kerbal EVA.

Edited January 3, 2017 by HalcyonSon

[suicidejunkie]

4 hours ago, Mjarf said:

It was fun though, Squad should definitely implement UFO's in the next update, or is there a mod for it perhaps?

Try flying north from KSC and circle the polar ice sheet with a keen eye.

[Nich]

Tried to play RSS 1.1.3 yesterday Crashed 3 times in a row trying to load the VAB.  Decided to go read the forums and saw that RSS has been updated for 1.2.2.  So excited

[capi3101]

(1.1.3, FAR to go). Been a week since I've posted about anything. Just spent the last 45 minutes catching up on this thread...

I'll give y'all the highlights of my last week:

December 22nd - I landed the Old Bessie 7 fuel hauler on Mün 180 meters from the Piper Alpha refinery and due to the shenanigans I'd pulled the day before getting it back up to the Munport space station that was as good as I was going to get it. The refinery might've just as well been on Eeloo at that distance, so I got Corbas onto the rover MIRV, hooked up the winch cable and towed the damn thing as close to the refinery until she refused to budge any further. It was close enough, though, once I got Corbas to re-position the fuel port on MIRV and hook it up to the refinery's winches. Refueling ensued. Wound up juggling the arrival of the ore hauler Nostromo, the arrival of the passenger ferry Next Objective and the arrival of Ziggy Kerman aboard the science lander Fireball 7a with the rendezvous of Old Bessie back to Munport.

December 23rd - I docked Old Bessie at Munport and landed Nostromo at Piper Alpha. After fueling up and grabbing a full ore tank, Nostromo departed for Kerbin. Next Objective arrived successfully at Munport although it came within 150 meters of Fireball 7a still in orbit in the process. Strange Cargo also arrived at the Kerbinport space station from a prior trip to Mün and docked successfully.

December 24th - I conducted four seperate Münar landings: the Spamcan 7 lander stationed at Munport, the Spamcan 7a lander also stationed at Munport, Old Bessie (which offloaded its payload and made another run to Piper Alpha while there was still daylight at the refinery, and Fireball 7a. Spamcan 7a went down with three KSC staff for flag planting duties and wound up parking about 60 kilometers from the Hojo Delta outpost, which Jenwin had tipped over accidentally after his last run on the rover Merv Griffin. Since the Spamcan had an available seat, Jenwin roved the sixty kilometers to meet up with it, boarded the lander and left Mun, allowing me to abandon the outpost. Merv Griffin remains on the surface for the time being and I intend to rove it to Piper Alpha, though that's going to be one hellacious drive. Sure as hell ain't gonna do that one during Munar night - which is all I'm going to say about that.

December 28th - I didn't do much on the 25th, 26th and 27th. At least, I didn't write it down. I did manage to get the Spamcan 7 stranded in a stable Munar orbit and Nostromo ran out of fuel before it reached Kerbinport in a stable Kerbin orbit; Old Bessie was dispatched to refuel the Spamcan, while an Auk III tanker spaceplane was dispatched to rendezvous with Nostromo. Both craft were successfully refuelled and eventually made it to their respective destinations, while Old Bessie successfully returned to Munport and the Auk returned to KSC. Fireball 7a returned to Munport with science readings from the surface and scientists Juluna and Milfrod began processing the data aboard the station's lab. The two scientists were the only Kerbals left aboard the station when Next Objective returned to Kerbin, successfully returning to and docking with Kerbinport. With a nearly full load of passengers headed to the surface of Kerbin, the Auk VII heavy passenger liner at Kerbinport undocked and made its way successfully back to KSC 09, clearing a number of contracts in the process.

December 29th-31st - With Strange Cargo, Next Objective and Nostromo all docked at Kerbinport and in need of refueling, I decided the time had come to make a heavier tanker spaceplane and began drawing up the plans for the Auk VIII. Originally I designed the craft with the intent of delivering one full S3-14400 tank (i.e. the big one) to LKO with a Senior Docking Port so that the craft could dock at Kerbinport's main utility berth, but that got switched to a J64 (orange tank) and Mk2 Docking Port when I discovered a conflict between FAR and the Sr. Docking Ports that limited the craft's runway speed to 24 m/s despite the docking port being nowhere in the airflow. Here's the final craft:

Auk VIII heavy tanker spaceplane. I guess she's hauling tylium...

So yeah, the plane had a pretty long and ugly gestation period, and she turned out to be a pretty ugly bird when everything was said and done, but she proved herself capable of doing the intended job when the time came, which is what counts.

January 2nd - Yesterday I pulled a double LKO rescue with an Auk I rescue plane, which went well right up until the plane landed, bounced and tore the damn engines off (again). I'm thinking about switching the Auk I from a "nose up" design to a "nose down" landing gear configuration to see if that fixes that recurring issue. I also expanded the Kerbinport space station with two more Hitchhiker modules and an auxiliary lab for contract, which mostly went OK; I did leave the RCS thrusters on the delivery module on the payload, so casting that bit off the station didn't exactly go as planned, but no explosions ensued so I'm okay with it. I once again adjusted the orbit of the Beep-Beep 7l probe for contract (why the game keeps picking that particular probe to move is beyond me). I also launched an Auk IV probe delivery spaceplane on a mission to deliver the Bleepity-Bleep 7f probe to an equitorial Kerbin orbit for contract; probe was positioned and the plane landed safely, though the Auk IV seemed to be a little less structurally sound than I remembered it being (might've just been that long since I flew one). I had several tourists that wanted to go to Minmus and I needed to pick up Buremy from the Minmusport space station, so Next Objective was dispatched and should arrive at Minmus in another twelve days. Meanwhile, I had a contract to rescue Danuna Kerman from Minmus, so I dispatched Minmusport's Spamcan 7a lander to go pick her up. The lander successfully rendezvoused with Danuna despite her craft being in a retrograde orbit, she boarded the Spamcan and returned successfully to Minmusport, and is scheduled to return aboard Next Objective when the time comes.

Got about thirty days left to my Duna window; I have my preliminary plans drawn up for the big mission there but I still need to finalize those plans, and at this point I need to step on it. About half of my current contracts involve Duna in one way or another, including ore deliveries and surface parts testing...

[Carl]

2 hours ago, lodger said:

Well, after having spent the past few weeks learning how to build spaceplanes and visiting Minmus with them, I resumed my ASES operations and here's what I did up until today:

ASES KOS 1 (Kerbin orbital station) was moved to low Mun orbit utilizing the ASES NE-1 nuclear engine block (basically 3x NERVs  and a bunch of Mk1 Lf fueslages) and renamed to ASES MOS 1. After that, a satellite carrying a M700 surface scanner was sent to a polar orbit around Mun to check out ore-rich regions. And eventually, ASES launched Bill's latest invention to the munar surface: the automated ASES ISRU 1 Unit. This multi-purpose unit will dig for ore and convert it to fuel on the spot. Once fully loaded (with fuel and ore) it returns to ASES MOS 1 usually with some 550 units of Lf and about 600 units of Ox left in the tanks. The ore will then be converted in-orbit to fill a storage tank. But have a look for yourself:

 

below you can see (right to left) ASES MOS 1, the storage tank, the NE-1 engine block to which the ISRU 1 Unit is docked. At the moment, ASES kerbonauts Wilburry Kerman and Wenthis Kerman are the active crew on board.

 

...and here's the ISRU 1 Unit in action:

That reminds me of my old lander. Very stable design. Remember a competition i put it in, the lifter got me a lot of lost points, but the lander was one of exactly two in the competition that i tested myself that didn't tip when i landed it on a slope.

[hendrack]

Exploration of Duna:

Deep Freeze vessel to Duna:

Duna Space Station, refrigerator and lander:

The science rover waits already on the surface (roughly 200 days of supplies)

Exploring most of Duna took about 40 days:

Back into orbit, did I shut down the reactor? nvm.

Now Bob is already frozen in orbit and waits for the next transfer window home.

 

 

[Sharpy]

10 hours ago, ScarM said:

These tiny wheels under these 2.5m tanks with drills make me really uncomfortable.

29 minutes ago, hendrack said:

Where did you get these cupolas from?

[hendrack]

USI.

[Carl]

Finally unlocked docking ports so go this thing off the ground. Forgot RCS so the plan to use is at the core of a station is off to a rocky start. Taking suggestion on how to handle that given over time i'm going to want to boost the station orbit from repeated dock/undock's messing with it. Oh and i forgot to take the heat shield off the bottom :(. Other than that quite happy with it, looking like a good mun orbit collect and return mission. So uh, yay. Used a completely new booster to lift it, the old tourist version has the issue of a much heavier payload stack on skipper tech which really pushes up the tankage to orbit which pushes up the to orbit weight and makes a booster like this not quite work, but since i unlocked twin boars to do this i think i'm going to come up with a new model for that too. it was a cool concept model, but i was trying to do too much with inadequate parts and it showed.

 

 

Mun orbiting and collecting is ongoing btw.

 

This little thing will probably be the core of all future orbiter missions with varying propulsion arrangements. Long term is likely to be NERVS with radial Ions taken up under a 3.75m fairing. Nervs will handle any burst dv needs, the ions will handle the long slow stuff. But thats a ways down the tech tree yet.

Edited January 3, 2017 by Carl

[Gaarst]

Started the design process for my next big RSS space program. The objective is manned missions to Venus and Mars orbits (landings for later) with return. Even though I'm still pretty far away from reaching this stage RP-wise, I've had some ideas for a bit and have decided to start getting things done.

The current plan involves a mothership that will remain in orbit for several missions. It will be powered by either electric or nuclear propulsion, still haven't made my choice: electric burn times are awful (in RSS even more so than stock) and the size of the LH2 tanks needed for nuclear is just insane.

My first design is on the light side of things: under 100t, it can support manned missions to Mars and Venus orbits but barely more. It is powered by ion propulsion, and because Xe gas cannot be transferred between tanks, its tanks are single use and refueling operations are simply changing fuel tanks (I have no idea if it's actually doable in real time, but I like the idea of throwing tanks away as we go).It's an early design and doesn't include the latest and future improvements in terms of propulsion (more powerful engines are yet to be conceived), life support (right now I just have huge supplies tanks, with no recycling whatsoever) and general design.
The following designs will be much larger, as they will need to support surface operations, so a lander and possibly base elements, but I still have time for that.

Sceptre Alpha (prototype and yet to be properly named: Sceptre is the program name):

[nascarlaser1]

Discovered the beauty that is vector egines.... Was able to propel 1 orange tank, 1 rockomax decoupler, an mk1 heat shield with parachutes, and 1 mk2 heat shield to mac 4 over the water . Time to add 4 more engines stacks, with 4 engines each using adapters, and asparagus staging, to make 20 vectors, and see how fast it'll go .