What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Kerbinchaser]

2 hours ago, Partperpart said:

Go to the mun for the first time

Congratulations! Did you make it back?

And I also edited the description for my video on YouTube. (First ever)

 

[qzgy]

Worked on a high volume shuttle. Vaguely based off of the Tu-2000, and as a continuation of my last attempt.

500 parts-ish. May extend the body slightly...

Door actually works!

WIP shuttle for now has ~1500 parts (not shown). Soon, I'm gonna see my CPU dripping down my motherboard...

[Ultimate Steve]

Another update in the frustrating world of RO/RP-0:

I launched Life Support Container 2 to Avalon Station.

These containers, or LSC's for short, are my resupply vessels, each packing 30-40 tons of food, water, and oxygen so I only have to launch one every three years or so based on a 6 man crew. The first two containers are the only ones currently planned, with the second shipment six years away (I don't like long term planning because sooner or later I'll burn out and I don't want to guilt myself with visions of the future, which is why I haven't planned a moon base or a Mars mission (but those are both goals I hope to achieve)).

I don't have an updated picture, but unless I deleted it in one of my three recent save corruptions (keep backups, kids), Eclipse Station (in LLO) now has three of seven modules assembled. I don't have a pic with three, so here's two of them:

If you look closely, you can see Earth next to the sun. Module three was attached to the top and was a habitation module/cupola/node combination.

In other news, Planetoid seven, originally destined for Mars had a glitch that sent it towards Venus instead, so I sent it there, but due to a serious glitch involving potential save corruption, the spacecraft was left to fly by Venus and remain untouched, not entering orbit.

I also added the second science module to Avalon Station.

However, somebody forgot to check the docking port clearance. Fortunately, I could throw enough money at an Adapter mission, and one was ready for launch a day later.

I think this is the best picture of the station I have so far - although it is slightly out of date as I have done a crew transfer, but everything else is the same. It's finally almost finished!

Also, new picture of Mu V which is launching a lunar SCANSAT satellite, which to reuse hardware is a standard GEO comsat with scanners instead of long range antennas.

 

Shown above is Melody 4, a three man Soyuz-esque crew transfer vehicle. I tried something new here, instead of building them when I need them, I just built four of them and I'll use them when I need them. I also hired nine new astronauts, for a total of twenty.

No pictures of this last one, but I realized two things:

1. I need a crew vehicle that can get to Eclipse Station without having to use a Gravity V (too big and not built yet) or a dedicated vehicle (would take too much time to design to a good standard of reliability).

2. I'm suffering from NASA budget syndrome. I'm not completely sure if this is true, but my budget may be about to crash. I don't have any super lucrative contracts right now IIRC, and with my notional future plans (20 launches of Gravity V at 100k each for 2mil total) as well as the necessary R&D upgrade (2mil) put me basically at how much money I have right now (3.8mil). I mean, I'll get a break when my outer planet probes arrive and when I set up Oyster AG outpost (for the one year in space contract), but my money is probably going to disappear fast. My only condolence is that in some respects I managed to do things faster than they happened in real life.

So, with these two problems in mind, I tried to design something with existing hardware that could get three people to LLO and back. I came up with a stripped down Melody capsule with a hypergolic lunar insertion stage on top of a Gravity IB. Now, here's the interesting part - Gravity I was originally designed to take one person to LLO, which it barely did - but the improvements introduced over time in GIA and GIB were sufficient to nearly double its capacity to LEO - giving it enough to barely take three people to LLO. This new program has been given the go ahead for an unmanned test and has been given the codename "Yonder."

In real life terms this endeavor would be somewhere between Zond and Orion, both in cost and capability.

[anti_con2]

just made my first un-kerbal landing on minmus!

[capi3101]

On 9/23/2017 at 6:42 AM, Landwalker said:

*Rubs bleary eyes*

After more than two years away from the game, I finally returned, went through my enormous mod setup process, and reacquainted myself with the game.  After several failed attempts, I even managed to launch my first rocket past the 18km mark!

Small steps, man.  Small steps.

 

17 hours ago, Landwalker said:

Launched the Circe I, intended to be the first probe in orbit around Kerbin.

Didn't quiiiiiiite make it...

I ran out of fuel with a periapsis of about 67 km.  In my rust, I probably have terrible launch angles and gravity turns, which I'm sure had something to do with it... I just don't know exactly what the problem was, or the right way to go about fixing it.

As a result, Circe I failed in its attempt to become Kerbin's first artificial satellite.  Hopefully the financial setback won't cripple the space program entirely...

Welcome back. Out of curiosity, what was the version you played? Assuming you're playing career, how far up the tech tree have you made it so far?

 

My own self, I'm now up to three weeks without reporting on this thread; I owe y'all a lengthy and substantial tale of my trials and tribulations for most of this past month. Which, naturally, I'm not going to give y'all right this second...

Edited September 25, 2017 by capi3101

[Landwalker]

39 minutes ago, capi3101 said:

Welcome back. Out of curiosity, what was the version you played? Assuming you're playing career, how far up the tech tree have you made it so far?

The last version I played was 1.0.4.  I'm using the SETI tech tree with CTT, and haven't progressed super-far.  Second-tier rocketry, basically.

[EpicSpaceTroll139]

13 hours ago, qzgy said:

Worked on a high volume shuttle. Vaguely based off of the Tu-2000, and as a continuation of my last attempt.

500 parts-ish. May extend the body slightly... <snip>

Door actually works! <snip>

WIP shuttle for now has ~1500 parts (not shown). Soon, I'm gonna see my CPU dripping down my motherboard...

Unless you're using FAR, make sure to build that door really strong, because stock aerodynamics will try to rip it off the back. Good luck with that though!

Edit: I wonder, will that thing even need wings? I can imagine that wing panel fuselage makes quite a bit of lift already!

Edited September 25, 2017 by EpicSpaceTroll139

[roboslacker]

I started a new career save

[capi3101]

1 hour ago, Landwalker said:

The last version I played was 1.0.4.  I'm using the SETI tech tree with CTT, and haven't progressed super-far.  Second-tier rocketry, basically.

Not much has been added to the game since then as far as new mechanics go. CommNet and KerbNet in v. 1.2 is probably the big thing. Landing gear also got tweakables in v. 1.1, and we also got KSPedia about that time.

If l'm reading the SETI tech tree right (it's not a mod I play with my own self), making orbit is tricky but doable with the tech you've got. Are you using stock air? What did your ascent profile look like on the probe you tried to launch?

 

[Landwalker]

6 minutes ago, capi3101 said:

Not much has been added to the game since then as far as new mechanics go. CommNet and KerbNet in v. 1.2 is probably the big thing. Landing gear also got tweakables in v. 1.1, and we also got KSPedia about that time.

If l'm reading the SETI tech tree right (it's not a mod I play with my own self), making orbit is tricky but doable with the tech you've got. Are you using stock air? What did your ascent profile look like on the probe you tried to launch?

 

Stock air, yes (I was initially using FAR, but then dumped it).

Launch profile, probably garbage...

[capi3101]

32 minutes ago, Landwalker said:

Stock air, yes (I was initially using FAR, but then dumped it).

Launch profile, probably garbage...

I'll respond with my observations over on that thread, since you've got one.

[qzgy]

2 hours ago, EpicSpaceTroll139 said:

Unless you're using FAR, make sure to build that door really strong, because stock aerodynamics will try to rip it off the back. Good luck with that though!

Edit: I wonder, will that thing even need wings? I can imagine that wing panel fuselage makes quite a bit of lift already!

I'm using around 4 jr docking ports to hold that door. Probably will hold? Anyway, thanks!

The wings kinda just help the look. Not super needed, I guess. But they also create drag, which is good on reentry. And help with attitude.

[Jett_Quasar]

I made a new channel trailer for all my KSP/Star Wars videos... enjoy!

 - Jett

[Ultimate Steve]

Update on the budget crisis:

• I went ahead and upgraded R&D, so now I have 1.7 million left.
• I realized that my unmanned Mars landing contract is about to expire and I have no way to get something to Mars that fast. I'm going to lose about half a million because of that, so I'll be down to 1.2 million soon.
• I'm probably going to burn through that fairly quickly, with at least 5 100k missions to assemble the lunar space station (0.7mil now), 2 200k missions to Mars and Venus (0.3 now) and general Mu launches.
• So my only hope is to complete the one year in space contract - which pays out nearly 8 million bucks.
• Currently, I'm planning on making a specially built one launch artificial gravity complex that will be around 20m long and may be in an elliptical Earth orbit. I can't do this on Avalon Station as it is constantly changing and the game counts it as a different ship, violating the contracts.

 

[Julien Kerman]

I did some fine tuning with the trajectory of the Venus Station, which will arrive in about 54 days.

I also took this screenshot with my Galileo Probe which is still orbiting Jupiter:

It shows all four galilean moons and all 4 inner planets.

Saturn was also visible, but could not fit on the picture anymore  

Edited September 25, 2017 by Julien Kerman

[Ultimate Steve]

@Julien Kerman Just out of curiosity, is the Venus station being done in career? If so, how far are you into career (both in time and achievements)?

[Curveball Anders]

Today I reached an absolute milestone in my KSP experience.

It took lots of careful research combined with hard determination.

First I found an MM cfg to set the default in all probe cores 'Hibernate during Warp' to Automatic.
(written by @Alshain)

Then I built on my extensive R&D and wrote my first own MM cfg to have AV-R8 winglets default to 'roll authority off' .

So I've now written my first KSP mod

 

[invision]

found this amusing considering where i landed

[Tyko]

3 hours ago, Curveball Anders said:

Today I reached an absolute milestone in my KSP experience.

It took lots of careful research combined with hard determination.

First I found an MM cfg to set the default in all probe cores 'Hibernate during Warp' to Automatic.
(written by @Alshain)

Then I built on my extensive R&D and wrote my first own MM cfg to have AV-R8 winglets default to 'roll authority off' .

So I've now written my first KSP mod

 

Congrats...welcome to a whole new style of KSP addiction - modding.

If you want to see more examples of ways to mod parts you may want to look at @Yemo's SETI mods. He makes all kinds of changes and does a good job of documenting. I learned a lot just combing through SETI Rebalance

Edited September 25, 2017 by Tyko

[DeltaDizzy]

23 hours ago, Lo Var Lachland said:

 

 

A tip for future videos:

add background music

seriously 

it makes all the difference

[Angelo Kerman]

I remodeled my old Multipurpose Base Unit into the Mk2 Ground Hub:

Here's the original, it's the part with the legs:

Here's the rebuilt version:

[DAL59]

Made a small rocket with a reusable second(but not first) stage.  Airbrakes are very useful.   

[Ultimate Steve]

Two launches occurred today. I actually flew about four, but on the first two the game crashed before I made orbit.

First off, Gravity IB and the command tower for Avalon Station:

The launch went nominally except for when the first service module engines failed to fire. However, with fuel transfer, the second service module was sufficient to complete the rendezvous, albeit a day late. This launch was both the longest and most massive (I think) payload launched by Gravity IB to this date.

Shot of the module approaching the station. I swear, I got a picture of it attached, but it must have not completed due to lag, so no picture, sorry.

Now, only one launch remains in the construction of Space Station Avalon - a small science and cubesat platform (mostly for aesthetics rather than function) for a launch on Neutron III.

The other launch was Yonder 1, a combination of Gravity IB and a Melody capsule designed to take three people to Eclipse Station, in low lunar orbit. I was somewhat surprised that this ended up being possible - that same lifter was originally designed to take one person on a lunar flyby, but I found out it could barely take one person to lunar orbit (and proved this on two flights, one a near disaster, one a rescue mission). However, three people is barely possible due to the upgrades to Gravity I over time.

Yonder 1 was unmanned.

Only two issues were found so far on the flight (because I still haven't flown it back) - the solar panels are just barely too small to keep up with the power needs of the spacecraft (but battery will cover it, that's how close it is) and the first service module only has four ignitions. I nearly lost the mission adjusting my trajectory when I realized I only had one ignition left.

Eclipse Station in Low Lunar Orbit, currently with three of seven modules attached, plus Yonder 1.

Current Launch Schedule with budget:

• Current balance: 1.6 million.
• Emerald Station (artificial Gravity one year in space station for 8 million fund contract) - paid for.
• Avalon Station M18 (cubesat thing) - cost negligible.
• Eclipse Station M4 (science lab) - 150k (1.45m)
• Skye 3 (Avalon Station to clean up excess RCS ports) - paid for.
• Eclipse Station M5 (hab 2) - 150k (1.3m)
• Gravity Planetoid (GP) 3 (Venus comms network (4 sats) and lander) - 200k (1.1m)
• Gravity Planetoid 4 (Mars comms network and Phobos/Demios lander(s)) - 200k (0.9m)
• Melody 5 (crew transfer) - paid for.
• Mu V Planetoid (MVP) 1 - Another Venus lander - 50k (0.85m)
• MVP 2 - Unmanned Mars lander - 50k (0.8m)
• Eclipse Station M6 (docking stem) - 150k (0.65m)
• Eclipse Station M7 (command tower) - 150k (0.5m)
• Yonder 2 - 100k (0.4m)
• Yonder cargo variant 1 - 100k (0.3m)

And there will undoubtedly be more unexpected missions in there, and there will be cost overruns. I'll be lucky to stay in the black for much longer. The main problem I see is that I will get 8m from the one year in space, but it will not come for a year. The challenge then becomes keeping busy for a year without running out of money.

Once both stations are complete and operational, I will retire Gravity III and design Gravity V, which should be able to get 200t to LEO (although its primary purpose will be taking moonbase modules to the moon) and will create a small-ish moon base and allow crews access to the Lunar surface.

And, maybe, if I'm lucky enough to continue to have free time, I'll build a mothership and send Men to mars in the mid to late 70's.

 

[JadeOfMaar]

It's been too long since I attempted these two planes (whatever form they take, but the intent or purpose is what matters).

The Jonny Quest Dragonfly

Same intent-- just to replicate this in KSP. I think it handles better than my previous attempt in KSP 1.1?

Spoiler

I'm unsure whether I'll actually have use for this but its stats are great so it gets a special corner in my hangar.

Sadly, I had to clip 3 engines to replicate its performance from the cartoon series. I don't like clipping engines, but for this it's totally worth it. In addition to performance their combined weight keep the CoM fixed.

(Specifically, the hidden engines are an ARI-73 for efficient and strong LF-only rocket boosting the visible J-92, even making the plane into an SSTO, and a stock Vector with a small supply of Oxidizer for a 10 second kick at launch.)

The Avatar Valkyrie

This was not intentional at all but I figured... while watching EJ_SA, to actually take a crack at this. (Side note, his Krakentech Valkyrie was epic.) Ultimately, it shares a purpose with one or two planes I built way back, and that purpose is, a single stage to Mun and beyond.

Spoiler

Without cargo its CoM is also anchored, and it noses up well on launch and at low speeds without needing RCS thrust. If I didn't like the idea of life support so much I'd finally be able to start an expedition to most places in the stock planet system, and with a low part count craft.

I could possibly get away with lower thrust, higher Isp VTOL engines than the Vectors but I only had Kerbin sea level in mind while choosing.

 

Edited September 26, 2017 by JadeOfMaar

[invision]

LOL OMFG