What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Leopard]

Tried an orbital rescue, for the third attempt, failed at the same point - unable to transfer to the other craft to initiate the EVA, or back to the space centre, or indeed anywhere else. (eggbox one version).

 

Have now given up until the re-write is released, has gotten to the point of playing for more than half an hour or so and something will lock up half the controls, or just crash, or something like the navigation nodes will stop working, or a craft will just explode when you switch to it (usually reporting "collided with the sun" as the reason).

 

nice game, terrible implementation, roll on the update, until then all I'm doing is playing something else

[joacobanfield]

I conducted my first manned Ike landing ever, got 3000 science and saved Spaghetti Kerman from orbit of Duna. Apparently, Zaltonic Electronics sent him to space in an airship gondola!

[Just Jim]

15 minutes ago, joacobanfield said:

I conducted my first manned Ike landing ever, got 3000 science and saved Spaghetti Kerman from orbit of Duna. Apparently, Zaltonic Electronics sent him to space in an airship gondola!

An airship gondola?? Are you using the Hooligan labs or Heisenberg mods?

[ARS]

Today I'm testing the feasibility of floating eve colony. Here's my base on eve:

It uses 4 heavy payload balloon to stay afloat. The engine beneath the structure is for stabilization (it's a nuclear thermal jet engine that allows it to run inside non-oxygenated eve atmosphere). The balloon alone is not enough to lift the colony by itself, neither do the engines. However, together, they allow the colony to be placed on top the eve clouds (Not pictured, my computer isn't strong enough to handle graphic mods  ). This is still a colony prototype and this is still a testing phase, not long-term operation. The structure is very hard to stabilize inside eve atmosphere (mainly to keep it hovering mid-air) and the engine is not perpetual, eventually, the enriched uranium resources used to run it will be running out, and the colony collapsed. I might try to improve the design more if I have more time

Edited June 29, 2017 by ARS

[LordOfMinecraft99]

I have landed my first ever recoverable first stage!

 

 

[EpicSpaceTroll139]

My shuttle launch script can apply steering to accurately achieve inclined orbits now. This is a picture from my first test with the new equations, in which I told it to go to a 60° inclined orbit.

Only 0.2° off! It would probably have been dead on if I hadn't had to take over and do circularization manually.*

Also got to test the (unloaded) cross-range ability of my shuttle by returning to the KSC after an orbit, which due to the inclination, put my trajectory way off in the middle of the ocean off the west coast of the KSC. 

I was so close to making the runway...

Thinking I might write a bit of script to tell me the angle at which to point the nose to get the optimal glideslope, as I'm pretty sure I could have made the runway if I hadn't done so much pitching up and down searching for the best angle.

*Forgot a "+ 180" on something so instead of circularizing it attempted to send me back to the launch pad. Might be useful for a RTLS abort though!

Edited June 29, 2017 by EpicSpaceTroll139

[Julien Kerman]

I decided to do something what NASA hasn't done yet.............a Neptune Orbiter for example !! 

Launch on Saturn Va-Centaur-D. DeltaV = 23,000m/s 

The transferburn to Neptune took 14 minutes and required about 8900 m/s deltaV

The Orbiter will arrive there in 31 years (btw thats way longer than expected, I thought it will take about 15 years...)

I also returned the Station crew from yesterday back home.

Now I have to send a resupply ship to the station, after Bob and Dibel run-down everything 

 

Edited June 29, 2017 by Julien Kerman

[Wahgineer]

48 minutes ago, EpicSpaceTroll139 said:

My shuttle launch script can apply steering to accurately achieve inclined orbits now. This is a picture from my first test with the new equations, in which I told it to go to a 60° inclined orbit.

Only 0.2° off! It would probably have been dead on if I hadn't had to take over and do circularization manually.*

Also got to test the (unloaded) cross-range ability of my shuttle by returning to the KSC after an orbit, which due to the inclination, put my trajectory way off in the middle of the ocean off the west coast of the KSC. 

I was so close to making the runway...

Thinking I might write a bit of script to tell me the optimal angle at which to point the nose to get the optimal glideslope, as I'm pretty sure I could have made the runway if I hadn't done so much pitching up and down searching for the best angle.

*Forgot a "+ 180" on something so instead of circularizing it attempted to send be back to the launch pad. Might be useful for a RTLS abort though!

Is this for kOS?

[NISSKEPCSIM]

@awsumindyman snip your quotes man!

[FungusForge]

Accidentally made one of those spinning sparkler fireworks testing a rover.

After I tweaked the torque massively, I stuck three of them on an aesthetically pleasing rocket bound for the Mun. They're going to find the best spots to land mining equipment so I can get a good ISRU system for more convenient refueling in Kerbin's SOI.

[joacobanfield]

I experienced re-entry in first person mode.

I will never, ever, give my kerbals a rough reentrty on purpose again.

[EpicSpaceTroll139]

1 hour ago, awsumindyman said:

Is this for kOS?

Indeed it is. An update on the status of the script: It seems to work perfectly, except when inclination is within a couple degrees of 90°, at which point it can't decide how to launch and goes in the wrong direction (ex 90° it launched towards -84° and toward the end of the boost phase it started yawing over to angles of about 45°, prompting me to override it and perform a RTLS abort).

Might adjust the decoupler or sepratron locations on the ET. I didn't like how its nose rose up towards the belly of my orbiter.

Edited June 29, 2017 by EpicSpaceTroll139

[Leafbaron]

On 6/27/2017 at 4:34 AM, Cupcake... said:

Got turned down for life insurance.  

 

Cupcake...

shoulda done highway to dangerzone for music!

also wanted to mention, @Cupcake... great plane and even better piloting skills!

Edited June 29, 2017 by Leafbaron

[Ultimate Steve]

I have completed the first successful test of my SRB Eve lander, from Eve orbit back to Eve orbit! Hopefuly, I'll use this model (with an added solar panel/RTG) for my SRB grand tour.

The de-orbit burn. I don't have any pictures of entry, however. There are five inflatable heat shields, four in the rear to produce drag, and one in the front for actual heat shielding. Right after the de-orbit burn, the de-orbit motor is detached and the other four shields are inflated. There are also four normal heat shields to protect the "landing gear."

After the thing has slowed down to about 500m/s the four rear heat shields (we're traveling prograde) they are decoupled. That is the easy part, as we simply drop them behind and let drag take them away from the craft. Now, the forward heat shield is a different story. The original idea is that without the drag at the back, the forward shield would make the craft flip around so we could jettison it. However, the craft is so back-draggy that it won't flip. I went through a design that tried to burn off the heat shield... no luck. I almost tried to make a missile to shoot it off, but I decided that was too impractical. I tried mounting separatrons on it to blast it away, but that did not work. Then I stuck four Launch Escape Systems to it at an angle. That works about 70% of the time. Collision with the rocket is still a problem, but it *should* work.

After that, I use the sets of wings to glide to the mountain I am launching from (It's more of controlled falling than gliding) and right as I am about 200-400 meters above the landing site and 100-200 meters from it horizontally, I deploy eight (I forget, it might be ten) parachutes. The rocket decelerates and flips tail-first. I am still going at around 16 meters per second at this point. About five meters above the surface I fire eight launch escape systems to cushion the landing. And if all goes well...

Hooray, we're on Eve now! The capsule on the bottom is there so I don't have to use a super long ladder.

After the surface mission is completed, the two sets of wings are jettisoned along with the capsule at the bottom and the parachutes. The rocket lifts off powered be five central kickbacks as well as two hammers and four Launch Escape Systems. The five central boosters do most of the work, but in order to prevent a flip-over shortly after liftoff more TWR and control is needed, hence the Hammers, LES's, and the four jettisonable canards at the top of the rocket. Once enough speed is reached, the canards are jettisoned (around 50m/s), shortly followed by the Hammers and LES's. The five core boosters burn out and jettison. The next stage is made up of three Hammers, staged so that the outer two burn before the center one. This stage gets some horizontal velocity going and puts the apoapsis above 90km. The final two stages are powered by 24 sepatrons each (After four years I still can't spell Separatr-whachamacallit right) and boost the capsule into orbit. Unfortunately, in this test the periapsis ended up at around 20km, nothing the EVA pack couldn't fix.

So, SRB only except for the last 50m/s.

Although in other (ascent only) tests, I managed to get into a orbits with an apoapsis of above 300km, probably due to an inconsistent flight profile.

 

Yay, progress!

[CatastrophicFailure]

1 hour ago, FungusForge said:

Accidentally made one of those spinning sparkler fireworks testing a rover.

You're about 5 days too early. 

[Kosmonaut]

46 minutes ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

You're about 5 days too early. 

Actually, he's two days early...

In two days, Canada celebrates our 150th birthday, which is objectively more important than the 241st birthday of America

No offence intended, but it's a more important number

[FungusForge]

6 minutes ago, Kosmonaut said:

Actually, he's two days early...

In two days, Canada celebrates our 150th birthday, which is objectively more important than the 241st birthday of America

No offence intended, but it's a more important number

I'll be honest with you, it might be a little odd being an American celebrating Canada's birthday.

[xendelaar]

2 hours ago, Ultimate Steve said:

I have completed the first successful test of my SRB Eve lander, from Eve orbit back to Eve orbit! Hopefuly, I'll use this model (with an added solar panel/RTG) for my SRB grand tour.

The de-orbit burn. I don't have any pictures of entry, however. There are five inflatable heat shields, four in the rear to produce drag, and one in the front for actual heat shielding. Right after the de-orbit burn, the de-orbit motor is detached and the other four shields are inflated. There are also four normal heat shields to protect the "landing gear."

After the thing has slowed down to about 500m/s the four rear heat shields (we're traveling prograde) they are decoupled. That is the easy part, as we simply drop them behind and let drag take them away from the craft. Now, the forward heat shield is a different story. The original idea is that without the drag at the back, the forward shield would make the craft flip around so we could jettison it. However, the craft is so back-draggy that it won't flip. I went through a design that tried to burn off the heat shield... no luck. I almost tried to make a missile to shoot it off, but I decided that was too impractical. I tried mounting separatrons on it to blast it away, but that did not work. Then I stuck four Launch Escape Systems to it at an angle. That works about 70% of the time. Collision with the rocket is still a problem, but it *should* work.

After that, I use the sets of wings to glide to the mountain I am launching from (It's more of controlled falling than gliding) and right as I am about 200-400 meters above the landing site and 100-200 meters from it horizontally, I deploy eight (I forget, it might be ten) parachutes. The rocket decelerates and flips tail-first. I am still going at around 16 meters per second at this point. About five meters above the surface I fire eight launch escape systems to cushion the landing. And if all goes well...

Hooray, we're on Eve now! The capsule on the bottom is there so I don't have to use a super long ladder.

After the surface mission is completed, the two sets of wings are jettisoned along with the capsule at the bottom and the parachutes. The rocket lifts off powered be five central kickbacks as well as two hammers and four Launch Escape Systems. The five central boosters do most of the work, but in order to prevent a flip-over shortly after liftoff more TWR and control is needed, hence the Hammers, LES's, and the four jettisonable canards at the top of the rocket. Once enough speed is reached, the canards are jettisoned (around 50m/s), shortly followed by the Hammers and LES's. The five core boosters burn out and jettison. The next stage is made up of three Hammers, staged so that the outer two burn before the center one. This stage gets some horizontal velocity going and puts the apoapsis above 90km. The final two stages are powered by 24 sepatrons each (After four years I still can't spell Separatr-whachamacallit right) and boost the capsule into orbit. Unfortunately, in this test the periapsis ended up at around 20km, nothing the EVA pack couldn't fix.

So, SRB only except for the last 50m/s.

Although in other (ascent only) tests, I managed to get into a orbits with an apoapsis of above 300km, probably due to an inconsistent flight profile.

 

Yay, progress!

 that's really impressive.  I'm not even able to get into orbit with only srb's and you're doing a grand tour?? that's Amazing!

[joacobanfield]

I let MechJeb handle a docking maneuver while I took a bath.

The result:

I saved it with Hyperedit.

 

[Wahgineer]

5 hours ago, EpicSpaceTroll139 said:

Indeed it is. An update on the status of the script: It seems to work perfectly, except when inclination is within a couple degrees of 90°, at which point it can't decide how to launch and goes in the wrong direction (ex 90° it launched towards -84° and toward the end of the boost phase it started yawing over to angles of about 45°, prompting me to override it and perform a RTLS abort).

Might adjust the decoupler or sepratron locations on the ET. I didn't like how its nose rose up towards the belly of my orbiter.

When its finished, will you put it up somewhere for download? I'd love to use it on the Cormorant Aeronology shuttles.

[Ultimate Steve]

Challenge list:

1. Logistics of an SRB grand tour

2. Docking large SRB segments

3. Eve Ascent Vehicle

4. How to bend the rules so it still counts as a Grand Tour without melting my computer

5. Tylo lander

6. Everything else

 

Tylo proved to be surprisingly easy.

The small motor on the bottom is the de-orbit motor. The capsule there is just for testing purposes. The two BACC's are there to do most of the descent work. The RT-10 is fired (after several quickloads) at the right time to ensure it burns out just above the surface. The ten sepatrons are for the actual landing. During the landing the RT-10 will explode leaving the lander low enough to not need a lander. Those two rings of separatrons at the top do all of the ascent work, and you can get to a 30x60 orbit (or better if you're good at piloting) with two separatrons and the EVA pack left over for rendezvous.

The official motto of the SRB grand tour: "Yay, Progress!"

[digger1213]

I decided to test out some VTOL planes, but got irritated with the Center of Mass and Center of Thrust lineup. So I came up with a far simpler solution.

I just noticed while looking at this picture that the RTG is off center. Whoops.

[ARS]

Testing another gundam-inspired craft, I'm trying to make the YMS-02 Union Blast from Mobile Suit Gundam 00 Another Story: Road to 2307 in flight mode:

Not exactly the best replica if I must say

The cockpit is hidden inside the cargo bay, covered by airbrake

It was GLORIOUS

MIght try to improve the design a bit to make it possible for SSTO operation

[EpicSpaceTroll139]

3 hours ago, awsumindyman said:

When its finished, will you put it up somewhere for download? I'd love to use it on the Cormorant Aeronology shuttles.

Sure thing! Might have to modify it to get it to work with your shuttles though, as it probably has some parts that work uniquely for this shuttle. I do however plan to eventually make it as easy to interpret and change as possible.

Edited June 30, 2017 by EpicSpaceTroll139

[Ultimate Steve]

I don't know why I did this, but even though I could just use the EVA pack, I made an SRB lander for Gilly.

Two separatrons. One fires for the de-orbit burn, and the single landing leg is enough to cushion the 18m/s impact. The second one gets us back into orbit.

Yay, progress!