What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Landwalker]

Jebediah completed the first crewed orbit of Kerbin, as well as the first spacewalk.  Racked up quite a bit of science (and funds) in the process!

Meanwhile, Bill took the Sciencemobile out for a spin to try to do some surface temperature and seismic scan contracts whose locations were all within about 8-9km of KSC.  He managed to get half of them done, and then totalled the vehicle by plowing into the slope holding up the runway at about 25mph.  Bill emerged unharmed, but the Sciencemobile has to be rebuilt in order to finish the seismic scan contract.

[vetrox]

After Being away from KSP for what seems like years. I reinstalled, added some mods using ckan (omg i was waiting for something like ckan since i first played ksp) then after learning how the new aero works. I slapped together a pretty crude but functional ssto and took a trip to laythe. Now i just have to send them some fuel for the return trip.

[capi3101]

So, apparently I haven’t posted jack squat on this thread in 25 days. That’s not for lack of playing KSP, mind you – I simply haven’t taken the time to keep y’all up to date on my latest activities. Rather than give you guys a detailed report like I would ordinarily do, I figured I’d just do a summary today. With pictures. Because pictures…

I began building a communications satellite constellation over Kerbin, which is proceeding apace with three rings of triangle-orbiting birds (one short range equatorial, one short range polar, and one long range equatorial). All the birds are in their final positions now except for Kerbincomms Hotel and India, both of which are way the heck out there in Kerbin’s SOI past 60,000 kilometers. Those two birds are awaiting final adjustments, and since their orbits are about seventy days each, it takes a while for them to make any needed positional adjustments. On a related note, I had to adjust the orbit of Minmuscomm Baker, which had drifted far enough out of its position to lose its direct connection with Minmuscomm Charlie. A simple (and much faster) fix later, all was cool and froody. I say that - it's been a while since I checked on the comm relays. I should check to see if any of them have drifted again; there's definitely fuel enough aboard each of them for station-keeping.

My ferry ships ferried. Necessary Evil took four tourists to Mun, then Minmus, while Strange Cargo hit Minmus first before going to Mun and Next Objective returned to Kerbinport station from ferrying, spending most of this past month docked at the station. Inexperienced KSC staff accompanied both craft for advanced flag-planting duties, and thanks to the labs at the Munport and Minmusport space stations, all of my extant KSC staff are now as fully trained as you can get without leaving Kerbin’s system with the exception of scientist Bobkin Kerman (who I only picked up just last week). Both ships are now back at Kerbinport and I’ll be sending down all the remaining paying customers and rescuees I’ve collected in an Auk II 8-Kerbal passenger spaceplane currently docked at the station later today (I've already sent down six Kerbals in a pair of Auk IX 4-Kerbal passenger planes, three yesterday and three more just a little while ago). When all is said and done, I will clear seven contracts all at once...it should be a pretty good payday.

I had four planes docked at Kerbinport all at the same time. I should mention that. Didn’t think it was possible, but here’s the screenie that proves I did it:

Still haven't figured out how I'd get a fifth one docked on the port you can't see in this screenie. I'd probably have to orient the plane so the port was on the side or something.

The mission of the Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout 7 garbage collection lander was ultimately successful, though it definitely didn’t go according to the plan. First, when she landed, she got a little close and blew the paywad (a Mk 1 cockpit) down a steep hill; luckily it survived. After relocating the lander closer to the target, I discovered I’d forgotten to bring any Kerbals along. So I sent pilots Nelny and Givin down to the site from Munport aboard the station's Spamcan 7b lander. They KIS-scooted/leapfrogged that cockpit 200 meters across the Munar surface to the lander:

Just how did you get the motorcycle up there on the high dive, Coy? ......brownie points for any of you kids out there who know the reference. Me, I'm probably showing my age right now...

I quicksaved before finally putting the cockpit in the lander’s KIS container, and it was a good thing I did: the game counted the part as destroyed and failed the contract. I quickly reverted and came up with a new plan: I sent the Jiffy Lube 7 parts lander I had over at the Piper Alpha refinery over, and used its tools to attach the cockpit to SCSS along with a pair of FL-T100 tanks, which were fueled up to counterbalance the cockpit. Naturally, I had to send Nelny and Gilvin back and exchange them for a pair of engineers so they could do the necessary repair job. That plan worked - I released the cockpit in Munar orbit, and SCSS returned to Munport.

Lesson for you kids out there - if you're going to clean up litter on the Mun, you need KAS/KIS or one hell of a Claw design. This mission turned out to be one gigantic pain...

A Bill Clinton 7b grabber probe later scooped the Cockpit up and took it back to Kerbin safly. I did two other Bill Clinton missions this past month – one returned a Mk3-2.5 Adapter, the other a cargo ramp (the second of which hasn’t returned to Kerbin just yet).

Final end of the SCSS mission. I like the bouncy house heat shield. Sure does make your paywad feel some serious gees...

The engineers running the Piper Alpha and Deepwater Horizon refineries on Mun and Minmus (respectively) have been busy with some other things (other than running their posts, I mean). Magster conducted a four point EVA mission using Piper Alpha's rover Indecision, with Theony at Deepwater Horizon later performing two similar missions with the rover La Perla Negra (translates as The Black Pearl - I guess I was in a Pirates of the Caribbean mood when I named the thing). Leedorf Kerman replaced Magster as capsule commander at Piper Alpha so the latter could accompany the ferries to gain some needed experience. Leedorf retrofitted Indecision into a fuel carrier and oversaw the final installation of the Jiffy Lube and Heartbreak Hotel 7 outpost craft as parts of the refinery (namely by hooking them up through KAS connector ports). Theony also used the Spamcan at Minmusport to fix an orbital probe for contract, which had a crucial scientific instrument missing at launch:

Is it Theony Kerman or Theoely Kerman? I don't know - one of them was a tourist, the other the engineer pictured making the rendezvous here.

When Theony completed that job, he conducted an EVA surface survey of Minmus near the southern pole before safely returning to Deepwater Horizon. 

Leedorf also played with explosives...

This is the part where you run like hell. Five meters in fifteen seconds would give me trouble, I think...

Leedorf is disappointed that there was no fire. My own self, I'm glad I bumped the blast radius down and the countdown up......

Scientist Siglock Kerman was rescued from a high orbit over Kerbin using the Spamcan lander at Munport, which successfully rendezvoused and returned to the station only to run out of fuel 400 meters away – and going at 6.6 m/s relative velocity away from the station at the time. The Old Bessie refueling lander was dispatched on an emergency fuel delivery run, which was successful; both craft returned safely to Munport and Siglock joined Necessary Evil on its tour of Kerbin's moons.

 

Less interesting stuff: I cleared three tourist contracts, did a Kerbal Tour Bus 7 flight for a single tourist on an orbital hop, did a ground survey near KSC 09, did some garbage hauling over Kerbin, did another ground survey near Deepwater Horizon, delivered a probe to Mun with an Auk IV probe delivery spaceplane flight, did a ground survey on Mun, delivered ore from Minmus to Kerbin (ostensibly), launched a probe to Minmus, and did a landing gear test contract using an Auk I LKO rescue plane. The Old Bessie landers at Mun and Minmus were kept busy, with the one at Minmusport landing once over the period to replenish the station's fuel supplies, while the one at Munport conducted refueling hops no less than seven times.

I also helped forum user @Kitspace test out a long-range cargo transport plane over the course of a couple of days. His final design is pretty nice and it flies well too.

That's pretty much been it. Last day or two has been spent working on the Black and Decker 7 parts delivery probe-landers, whose purpose is to deliver spare KIS screwdrivers to the refineries. I was having a really tough time with getting them into orbit; the problem there turned out to be excessive drag in the design because I had made the fairing too blunt. While I was able to successfully deploy the one headed out to Piper Alpha, I forgot to deploy the solar panels on the one headed out to Deepwater Horizon, so it was DOA when it reached Minmus's SOI. A replacement has been launched and should arrive in about another four days or so.

 

TL, DR: I've had a busy month…
 

Edited October 1, 2017 by capi3101

[dvp]

Started a new save with some mods I couldn't resist. Something about base building and colonization, and one that adds another star. Should keep me going longer.

[Azimech]

Curious to see if I can pull this off. Stock aircraft with real control surfaces. Never mind the controls are reversed at the moment, I'm already happy it doesn't fall apart on the spot!

The reason? KSP control surfaces have magical properties: they don't use a resource and don't suffer from compressibility effects or even control reversal, something all WW2 pilots had to deal with at high speeds.

 

That's a lot of linkages to build and adjust ... and lots of possible points of failure.

[EpicSpaceTroll139]

19 minutes ago, Azimech said:

Curious to see if I can pull this off. Stock aircraft with real control surfaces. Never mind the controls are reversed at the moment, I'm already happy it doesn't fall apart on the spot!

The reason? KSP control surfaces have magical properties: they don't use a resource and don't suffer from compressibility effects or even control reversal, something all WW2 pilots had to deal with at high speeds.

<Snip>

That's a lot of linkages to build and adjust ... and lots of possible points of failure.

Good Lord Azimech...

How do you plan to control everything? We don't exactly have giant people in KSP to manipulate the various controls. Are you planning on connecting all the controls to the stick, or will you have to frantically switch back and forth between yaw pedals, the control stick, throttle, and flap lever when taking off and landing?

Edited September 29, 2017 by EpicSpaceTroll139

[anti_con2]

currently trying to recreate the new BFR V1 that elon musk announced yesterday, going pretty well so far.

[Azimech]

4 minutes ago, EpicSpaceTroll139 said:

Good Lord Azimech...

How do you plan to control everything? We don't exactly have giant people in KSP to manipulate the various controls. Are you planning on connecting all the controls to the stick, or will you have to frantically switch back and forth between yaw pedals, the control stick, throttle, and flap lever when taking off and landing?

Pitch and roll will be combined. Rudder separate, Throttle, gears and flaps combined.  I guess a mod for fast switching would be very useful, yes. It's a shame you can't order the focus sequence.

Yes, it's going to be tough. Especially because reaction wheels won't be working.

[CatastrophicFailure]

41 minutes ago, EpicSpaceTroll139 said:

We don't exactly have giant people in KSP to manipulate the various controls.

Give him time, I'm sure he'll come up with one of those, too. 

[RoadRunnerAerospace]

1 hour ago, Azimech said:

Curious to see if I can pull this off. Stock aircraft with real control surfaces. Never mind the controls are reversed at the moment, I'm already happy it doesn't fall apart on the spot!

The reason? KSP control surfaces have magical properties: they don't use a resource and don't suffer from compressibility effects or even control reversal, something all WW2 pilots had to deal with at high speeds.

That's a lot of linkages to build and adjust ... and lots of possible points of failure.

OH

MY 

GOD

[coyotesfrontier]

I worked some more on "Uncharted Frontiers" (A WIP OPM rearrangement), and decided that I'll make a config for the stock system as well as Uncharted Lands. Each gas giant now has custom textures, with their moons being completely rearranged. I'm also in the process of creating new descriptions for each of the planets/moons, to match their new positions. The atmosphere color gradients are taken from Sigma's OPM recolor, because I'm too lazy to figure out how to do them on my own.

Warm Neidon, with Nissee, Priax, and Slate:

Sapphire Sarnus, with Thatmo off in the distance:

Rose Urlum, with Wal and Polta:

Edited September 30, 2017 by coyotesfrontier
Grammar Correction

[Ty Tan Tu]

I sort of hit the wall where I was not really sure what I wanted to do. Then i remembered a video tutorial on the Kerbal Planetary Base System  where the presenter simply used Hyper edit to place the bases  on the surface, so, I just went with that. I discovered that the VAB and Space Hanger limit the size of what you can build.

My first effort was really not much more than an exercise to use all the parts of the Planetary Base System. It has a nuclear reactor for power, two drillers (one for oxygen and one for nuclear fuel), all the tanks and processors, a garage, science labs, greenhouses and habitat. I tried to put a bit of thought into it . Everybody has their on entrance to their living space without having to walk through someone else's living space.

But I thought there was not enough greenhouses. So I built a farm. There are 16 greenhouses there.

Why not build up instead of out...

Here is what it looks like now.

I will probably just delete the game, and try again, combining all of the best parts of the three designs 

Edited September 30, 2017 by Ty Tan Tu

[Geonovast]

Brought a probe to Dres.  Up to this point, even in stock sandbox, I'd only ever been to The Mun, Minmus, Eve, Duna, and Ike.  Did two flybys of Moho.  After some high and low orbit scans, I'm gonna make a suicidal attempt to land on the surface.

[scottadges]

2 hours ago, Ty Tan Tu said:

 

Is there a Kerbi-moji for "you blew my mind with KSP" ?!

 

2 hours ago, Geonovast said:

With a probe that big, you should get something for the Dres Awareness Challenge. Nice work!

 

Edited September 30, 2017 by scottadges

[scottadges]

Today I put a Solar Array tower on the Mun Station as part of the Kommunity Space Station 1.3 group/challenge.

Also did some more driving for my Elkano Minmus Challenge. Already to Flag #7... so much farther to go!

Edited September 30, 2017 by scottadges

[invision]

due to the success of the Kerbal SP-1 the kerbals wanted more....

 

introducing the SP-2

S for space P for plane but now room for 2

[Colonel Cbplayer]

I got bored from making cars so I made something nice and quick

https://imgur.com/bDAoQYj

[Angelo Kerman]

I unwrapped the Homestead Mk3:

Then I took a break and made a Duna Ascent/Descent Vehicle:

I can fly it just fine from orbit, then slow it down enough to go vertical, but I need MJ to keep it steady as it lands VTOL mode. Still, it works.

I also made a Duna Base Camp:

Edited September 30, 2017 by Angel-125

[qzgy]

5 hours ago, Azimech said:

I guess a mod for fast switching would be very useful, yes. It's a shame you can't order the focus sequence.

Might I suggest EasyVesselSwitcher? Its a mod where you switch by pointing and clicking while holding the modifier key. Could be very useful for this project.

Also, good luck with your endeavor.

 

In other news, I tried to send that giant shuttle (currently under the name Tu-2003) into orbit.

Spoiler

Runway launch. Vertical puts too much stress, so this is used instead.

Using way too many engines to be reasonable, it kinda has to catapult itself into vertical. Not super efficient

Look! It goes up!

Soaring through the clouds. The part count is around 1400, for anyone wondering.

So, this is it trying to get into orbit. Screwed up the ascent, so couldn't actually get into orbit. Sadly.

Didn't work.

Edited September 30, 2017 by qzgy

[scottadges]

1 hour ago, Colonel Cbplayer said:

something nice and quick

Ha "nice and quick" seriously how many hours went into this  Amazing!

Edited September 30, 2017 by scottadges

[Colonel Cbplayer]

3 minutes ago, scottadges said:

Ha "nice and quick" seriously how many hours went into this  Amazing!

about a day and a half worth of time
as in I started this yesterday at 10 pm

 

[scottadges]

5 minutes ago, Colonel Cbplayer said:

about a day and a half worth of time
as in I started this yesterday at 10 pm

If you tell me it actually moves, I'm going to spit this beverage all over my keyboard...

[Colonel Cbplayer]

1 minute ago, scottadges said:

If you tell me it actually moves, I'm going to spit this beverage all over my keyboard...

Well it can, it is the exact same thing as this but with a bunch of useless stuff slap on top of it. and tweakscaled to be bigger

 

It is too heavy to even stand right now but I can make it light enough to walk with cheats. I'll do that tomorrow because I gonna go to bed right now

Anyway I can make it do poses in the editor

[scottadges]

4 minutes ago, Colonel Cbplayer said:

Well it can

*Sppffffflllllsssshhhhhhhgg* .... 'scuse me while I wipe off this keyboard.

The stuff people make with KSP is mind-boggling  Awesome work

[JadeOfMaar]

I revisited my unreleased racing NOS modlet for KSP 1.2.x, improving what was there, adding a dimension to it, with favor towards lovers of Skylon and spaceplane engineers in upscaled games. In the interest of keeping clone part count down, I chose the Whiplash to become the dedicated spaceplane NOS rocket, successfully switching between stock engine mode and this. The purpose of this modlet is to, within reason, give lovers of speed a little more to have fun with and benefit from, while speeding.

I also did some messing about with sunflares and finally released my sunflare pack for GPP, linked through my signature.