What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Overland]

Went back to the old trustworthy 12m/s Puma derived KSC1 Class RTG trains.. no real changes from last year.. quite articulated.. too much so.. great for exploring KSC taxiways.. not so much for anything over 10m/s

is angry snek

 

 

 

[RoboRay]

I just upgraded my geostationary comsats while testing RSSVE Lite...

[AntherJebediah]

Launched a big mun base in one piece and landed it on the mun. 

 

[DerekL1963]

9 hours ago, regex said:

 

I've been meaning to ask you...  what mod is that engine section from?

[septemberWaves]

@eddiew Nice solar panel configuration. I'm guessing you haven't unlocked sun-tracking panels yet? It's a pretty clever workaround.

[regex]

14 minutes ago, DerekL1963 said:

I've been meaning to ask you...  what mod is that engine section from?

SSTU. It does some things in weird ways as part of its mission to deliver low-part count solutions and it boasts fuel variety (which I had to script out because, unlike a fully-pruned RO with Procedural Tanks, stock-alike parts don't really handle that sort of thing gracefully), but man are the tanks and engines pretty! Solar panels too.

[Shadowmage]

45 minutes ago, DerekL1963 said:

I've been meaning to ask you...  what mod is that engine section from?

Looks to be the J-2 on top of a split-tank upper-stage, both from:

Edit:  Ninja'd by Regex

Edited January 28, 2017 by Shadowmage

[Guest]

WIP lander.

It's based on the MEM from Voyage by Stephen Baxter, though I know it only from portrayals by winged and Chris P. Bacon in videos.

[eddiew]

With the fuel depot docked to Manatee Station, it's time to kick the mission into high gear.

Having tapped up two biomes, Jay Kerman returns with several hundred data points, which are sure to multiply to some significant discoveries once the lab has processed them. In two or three... years. Control makes a note; send the next science team on a training mission before committing them to the long haul.

 

1 hour ago, eloquentJane said:

@eddiew Nice solar panel configuration. I'm guessing you haven't unlocked sun-tracking panels yet? It's a pretty clever workaround.

Indeed not, this 10% science income is really harsh - except now I've loaded my lab with 5x surface samples that have been edited up to their default (100%) value, so I'll have about 3500 science out of that in... some years, when the level 1 scientists on it have done their jobs.

Not sure if that's going to turn out to be insanely high... it sounds like a lot, but then, I don't even have 3.5m tech and I've hit every biome within Gael's SoI. Short of cheesing it with multiple labs and just picking up the same old rocks, I'm going to have a challenge getting out to my next destination.

Meanwhile, yeah, Manatee's solars are an effective, but part-heavy solution to the problem and just provide enough juice to keep the lab going. I'll probably abandon the whole station when it's done its job, but if I decide to keep it, the solar panels are on a separate module so they could potentially be swapped out for something more efficient later on  

Edited January 28, 2017 by eddiew

[regex]

Busy morning full of operations around Duna.

Landing went much better than expected and it turned out I didn't need to lug that heatshield all the way to Duna. Oh well. There was a scary moment where I had retrograde lock set on the SAS and the lander was literally sideways about five meters from the ground but I turned it off just in time and, after a small bounce, we landed upright. Parachutes worked perfectly, I would use this setup again, only needed a short squirt of the engines to bring the velocity down to reasonable levels. Once we returned to orbit I made the transfer to Ike SOI along with the supply raft. After rendezvous and some reconfiguration of the ship I took stock and decided we should set up shop here, with some three Earth years of supplies available. Lots of research to complete, lots more to collect from Ike. I'll send fuel and a few more modules to the DTV, it might just become Duna Station; I already have half of the resupply chain built.

Next up on the manned mission list is Eve, I'm planning an orbiter much like the DTV which will likely also become a research station. Landing there is one of my goals but that's a little further down the tech tree. Fortunately the Duna resupply chain works just as good for Eve ops.

[N_Danger]

 Sent some satellites to Jool

 

And got a Tylo encounter with my breaking burn. So released the first sat.

 

Tylo,

Pol,

Bop,

Laythe,

and Vall all get their Satellites. It was a little tricky at one point with 3 of the Sats having a braking maneuver within the same 2 hour window. 

 

And the Science was good. I could only run one scanner at a time due to electrical shortages but no worries other than that.

 

[Brownhair2]

I wonder when New Horizons is going to be updated for 1.2.2

Edited January 28, 2017 by Brownhair2

[NISSKEPCSIM]

I just launched my first space station (temporary, like the Manned Orbiting Laboratory) today using M.O.L.E. I had to fulfill a contract, which required me to put a station in orbit of Kerbin with (1) 5 crew slots, (2) an antenna, a docking port, and some solar panels, and (3) maintain stability for 10 seconds. And thus, the Ares IV MOL Mk3 (Don't ask what happened to the previous 4 missions) was born:

The launch was smoothly:

And in no time, the MOL was in a (very awkward) orbit:

On the MOL was a telescope (I think it was called the Deneye), which took a snapshot and then began to start mapping the planet. I also equipped it with a TERRAIN geo-scanner from Pathfinder, but it only works in a polar orbit, so I guess I won't be using that. I'm hoping to get a good science haul from this mission, so that I can unlock Advanced Exploration in R&D (Because I need to unlock the MOLE's mobile processing lab function). I had to battle a bit of save file corruption due to... something. I don't know exactly what, but I fixed it and everything is fine now. Except for the fact that I can only enlist one Kerbal in the astronaut complex, except whenever I try to enlist him, he doesn't get enlisted. And he isn't a pilot, or an engineer, or a scientist, he's something called an XP Trait. So if anyone knows how to fix this problem I would really appreciate your help. Thanks.

[flatbear]

landed my duna base on the north pole

 

nice view of ike

 

all set up

[Aragosnat]

Another find day of not using RSC to dock ships together:

The two lander cans was on the nose of the far left craft. Which the craft with the landing legs had to dock with the left craft first before docking to the attached craft. All done without RCS. Reason I had to do it was because lcked enough Kerbals for a contract and two the two lander cans accidently had their engines separate a wee bit earily and had to get a Kerbal out and push it back down onto the nose of the other craft on the far left.

[Guest]

 

JEB asked BillyBob to join the OutLaws of Kerbal. And set out to meet the club on his HD sporty!

 

[Cupcake...]

Polished off an aircraft design vid, including a round the world flight.

Enjoy!  

 

Cupcake...

[cantab]

Zip all. First time I've been able to play KSP properly in a few days cos I've been sick, and I just repeatedly try and fail to make LEO in a rocket that should do it It just feels rubbish, spending hours and accomplishing nothing.

[Camaron]

I built my first thing in over a year since the last time I played Kerbal Space Program. I essentially picked up where I left off, attempting to design an SSTO which can reach orbit with a decent number of passengers, (12 in this design), with enough DV to carry itself and its resource mining capabilities and scanning drone to minmus to refuel to grant itself the ability to reach any location in the solar system.

A few hours ago I succeeded in completing a design which appears to accomplish this very well. I have not thoroughly tested what it can do, or even attempted re-entry and landing yet, but here, you can check it out anyway!

Of course during screenshots, I realized I've already made an obvious mistake with non-retractable solar on the probe that is supposed to re-mount the ship between planets. Lol.
http://imgur.com/a/aQFPy

The forum has changed how it does things. Wouldn't mind if someone shot me a PM with the basics on how to put up an image.

Edited January 29, 2017 by Camaron

[Guest]

Some playing around: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2HFsuXiHJI

 

Took a break from lander design by... designing another lander. The apex of decision-making, there. Oddly, it reminds me of a birthday cake. I did consider having four seats perched on the tanks but they're amazingly heavy for a craft of this size.

https://falsesteps.wordpress.com/2012/11/25/sidebar-the-lunar-escape-device/

Edited January 29, 2017 by Guest

[regex]

So I couldn't put the game down today. We caught up on laundry, did some other random chores, and watched the kiddo for signs of flu after a bump in her temperature (she's fine as of bedtime). Amidst all that I got a bunch done in the game.

There are now probes on their way to Jool and Dres, copies of the Sarnus probe. I sent an exploratory vessel to Eve orbit, it's the one in the first and second pictures. Between that and the Duna science lab I managed to unlock the 160 tier, most of the 300 tier, and pick up a 550 or two. Having access to nuclear engines opens up the possibilities on where to go next, and I think that might be a lander to Moho. The last two pictures depict an asteroid interceptor which I used to wrangle a 600-ton mass into a polar orbit. There's a fuel slug ready for transfer to Duna so we can grab a ton more science from the surface of Ike pretty soon and I just unlocked the station hub parts I wanted for the Ike Station.

I'm sure you can see the theme in my ships during this playthrough, I'm really liking the continuity but I'll probably try some wilder things once I unlock the larger lifting engines. I don't know if I change styling all that much between games anyway, probably depends on the parts I have access to (Nertea's station parts are fantastic). The KSPIE stuff is starting to appear in tech nodes which is what I've been waiting for. Hope my spam isn't too boring...

[CaptainTrebor]

In my career save re-entered probe first, as I had to use the probe which was on the top of a manned capsule (the probe was destined for the Mun) as a heatshield as due to bad design ended up having to use my heat shield as a decoupler.

Edited January 29, 2017 by CaptainTrebor

[Carl]

On 28/01/2017 at 1:58 AM, AccidentsHappen said:

Fooled around in my Sandbox save. Made some more planes that didn't work very well. Realised I forgot to feed my lizard. So I did that.

And then though it would be cool to make a lizard in KSP. I'll probably have trouble articulating the limbs, but I'll work on it. 

Who's a cute lizard. *tickle, tickle*

16 hours ago, eddiew said:

With the fuel depot docked to Manatee Station, it's time to kick the mission into high gear.

Having tapped up two biomes, Jay Kerman returns with several hundred data points, which are sure to multiply to some significant discoveries once the lab has processed them. In two or three... years. Control makes a note; send the next science team on a training mission before committing them to the long haul.

 

Indeed not, this 10% science income is really harsh - except now I've loaded my lab with 5x surface samples that have been edited up to their default (100%) value, so I'll have about 3500 science out of that in... some years, when the level 1 scientists on it have done their jobs.

Not sure if that's going to turn out to be insanely high... it sounds like a lot, but then, I don't even have 3.5m tech and I've hit every biome within Gael's SoI. Short of cheesing it with multiple labs and just picking up the same old rocks, I'm going to have a challenge getting out to my next destination.

Meanwhile, yeah, Manatee's solars are an effective, but part-heavy solution to the problem and just provide enough juice to keep the lab going. I'll probably abandon the whole station when it's done its job, but if I decide to keep it, the solar panels are on a separate module so they could potentially be swapped out for something more efficient later on  

Use the labs onboard level crew function, getting them to out there should have earned them some nice xp.

[ZentroCatson]

Well, the past three days I've been doing a bunch of operations in Duna orbit.

Spoiler

I decided to aerocapture the SpaceYak to save some fuel. I first went for a highly inclined orbit so I could deploy the glider drones, afterwards I performed an aerobrake to get the Yak into a circular orbit. I would've had enough fuel left to get back to Kerbin even with a standard capture burn, but aerocaptures are just more awesome 

Spoiler

Here's one of the two glider probes flying above Duna. Actually they're not really gliders since they do have an engine for powered flight, but who cares? I brought them for a survey contract. One of the drones ran out of fuel after the first survey area so I had to glide it to the next one. You can glide pretty well on Duna if you have enough wing area and altitude.

Spoiler

After that I finally landed the Dustcalf on Duna. I've been playing KSP for three years now, but this if my first ever manned Duna landing  I also assembled a small rover using KIS, just for the sake of driving around the lander...

Spoiler

The ascent and rendezvous went smoothly, I still had 200m/s in the lander's last stage before docking with the station. Now, I planned to let the crew stay in orbit of Duna for 1y 150d (that's when the transfer window pops up). Because of the aerobraking maneuver, I saved a lot of DV. The ship has 1500m/s in total, an efficient Duna -> Kerbin transfer would take 700m/s without a capture burn at Kerbin, wich I'm not planning to do. The SpaceYak will burn up in the atmosphere, while the lander's capsule will return to Kerbin. It will be quite a hot reentry so I might as well slap some bacon on the capsule 

So, plan change: instead of waiting those 1y and 150d for the transfer window, I'm gonna use the excess fuel to just kick in the back door. Screw transfer windows!

@regex Your Duna ships look really cool!

Edited January 29, 2017 by ZentroCatson
Speelinkz and kramarz

[Zeiss Ikon]

Didn't get anything done yesterday except reading on this forum (had to drive a couple hours to the aquarium store; partner needed fish).  Jeb is currently in LKO, pending transMunar insertion on the way out to rescue Elyris (who is stranded in Munar orbit in her space suit); I should be able to complete that mission later today.