What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Guest]

9 hours ago, Atkara said:

Splitting the burn by heading for Ike, refueling and then going to Jool would keep things well in range of a LOX transfer vehicle, given what you seem to have to carry there. But I'm not sure if it would be an acceptable tradeoff -and that is, IF you have any kind of infrastructure in the system.

I don't. I decided to make the Jool system my base since there's so much more to explore there. Adding a stopover at Duna would be a significant undertaking even if I did; for one thing I'd have a second transfer window to juggle.

Also I just remembered that the Rukh's engines are on pylons which means I can detach them. So I saved poor Valgas using the magic of quickload. It was a somewhat intricate operation as the Rukh was also out of electricity, so I had to charge it up by docking an orbital tug onto it and using its solar panels to fill it up. After that, things went pretty smoothly -- I detached the opposite engine pod so the plane was more or less symmetrical and flew back. Lost control for a while but regained it at around 10k altitude, and ended up on the runway with no more pieces missing. And Valgas didn't even gain any experience.

Still wondering what exactly happened there. Only exceptional thing about this launch was the mass -- the payload was over 220 tons.

Anyway. Pelican/ISRU are now in orbit all fueled up and ready to go. Then gonna send up the mobile home. That's firmly in the "just because" camp, it won't be doing anything particularly useful on Laythe.

Edited January 26, 2018 by Guest

[RizzoTheRat]

13 hours ago, Fearless Son said:

I am fond of adding a lot of reaction wheels to my rovers and setting them to "SAS Only".  I find that (on level terrain at least) it makes them a lot more reliable with SAS engaged.  I can do things like floor the breaks hard or make a sharp turn and keeps the rover from fishtailing (since the reaction wheels fight forces which are not otherwise directed by the pilot.)  I do have to periodically toggle the SAS off and back on again while on rough terrain though, otherwise it has a habit of not keeping its orientation flush with the ground when going over a gentle slope.  Need to let it get all its tires back on the ground.

Presumably if you have a docking port on top of the rover, you could select control from here and set SAS to radial out so SAS tries to keep it horizontal.

 

For a laugh I built a test rig to have a play with suspension

Dropping the wheel friction help a lot with rollovers, on Kerbin around 0.7 lets you be pretty free with the steering, although I found if I had the rear friction lower than the front it was pretty hard to catch oversteer, probably understeer is safer in which case leaving the rear friction at 1 means you've got plenty of traction.

I believe in offroad racing you want the front set up a bit stiffer than the rear, however I suspect this is so you can gif it a bit of extra throttle before the jump to get the rear to squat.  I doesn't seem to make too much difference driving at a constant speed.  Sadly I don't get a screenshot of the first jump when it landed pretty level and I thought I was on to something.  I didn't manage to repeat it though, and subsequent jumps seemed to be mostly nose down with some tail down ones as well

 

Bill had fun though

[LordFerret]

...and she'll have fun fun fun till her daddy takes the T-Bird away.

Up on Duna, Trama is doing just that. She's been cruising around in what I'll call 'the little rover that could', because I never imagined the rover would make it this far. From a bad landing site over 200km away to the west, Trama drove NNE to "The Face". From there, she's driven S, all the way down to what I'll call "Impossible Rock". I call it that because it appears it is impossible for a Kerbal to climb it. Trying to jet-pack to the top doesn't bring much luck either, because as soon as you land on it the Kerbal goes rag-doll. It appears to be some kind of strange meteorite perhaps, or so it looks like... with some strange unknown 'tool' stuck on the top. Anyway, she's there. For now, she's parked there, munching the last of the snacks she brought along. Soon enough, a lander will set down and pick her up for a ride back home... daddy takes the T-Bird away.
 

[Atkara]

2 hours ago, Brikoleur said:

Valgas didn't even gain any experience.

He'll gain the experience another day. You got your crewman back -that's what matters. Just make sure your plane has some way to generate electricity on it's own, before sending it up again.

This morning, I had my own mishap, due to... well, technically not a miscalculation, rather than an oversight.

I sent a lander to Duna, to operate as a surface to orbit shuttle and transfer Kerbals between Duna & Ike if necessary -but it's on a tight DV budget. A budget I exceeded, when maneuvering to land next to the surface outpost. It was supposed to be fueled up by a wheeled surface miner, which with everything going on in my career, I forgot to send along. I could just wait for the next transfer window to bring one over there, but there are a couple of mission-related Kerbals I want to send back to Kerbin -and their ride is already in orbit around Duna.

Now, the outpost itself has small-form drills & ISRU to feed it's fuel cells (it doesn't use solar panels). I could install KAS and refueling the lander would be as simple as bringing it closer to the outpost (it's currently 146m further) and dragging a hose to it. But I'll do it the 'complicated' way instead:

My surface miner is currently landed on Ike, having just finished a local mining contract (it's free money, who am I to say no?). So, I'll load it up with fuel and ore and bring it in LDO. Then, I'll have the lander do what would otherwise be a direct orbital rendezvous -only the rest will be done by the miner, who'll dock with it, push it into stable orbit and fuel it up. I've done enough DORs to feel comfortable so that's a plus. Ofcourse, I'll have to push the lander's apoapsis well above Duna's equivalent of the Karman line, to avoid KSP possibly taking an action it shouldn't.

This will be fun

Edited January 26, 2018 by Atkara

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, Atkara said:

He'll gain the experience another day. You got your crewman back -that's what matters. Just make sure your plane has some way to generate electricity on it's own, before sending it up again.

Yeah I know. Normally I just use the Rukh to got to LKO and get back, and it packs more than enough batteries for that. This time the mission featured a RV with another craft, and the manoeuvres drained the batteries; I forgot to add some solar panels to compensate. I have learned valuable lessons from this. Wish one of them included understanding why that engine pod came to pieces to start with.

Now I have two rather expensive pieces of debris in orbit (seven RAPIERs each). Am thinking of putting a Klaw on a Pelican and sending it to get them. Hate waste, even if I'm not exactly hurting for Funds.

BTW the little orbital tug I quickly knocked together turned out to be surprisingly useful, not to mention fun to fly. It doesn't have a main engine at all, just a bunch of Vernors and a big reaction wheel. Thing scoots as easily in any direction and accelerates remarkably fast! I left it up there with a bit of fuel in case I need it again.

[Atkara]

7 minutes ago, Brikoleur said:

Now I have two rather expensive pieces of debris in orbit (seven RAPIERs each). Am thinking of putting a Klaw on a Pelican and sending it to get them.

A pack of 7 Rapiers... so, cargo bays are out of the question, assuming the Pelican is a spaceplane -I don't recall ever seeing it, but on the other hand, I didn't sleep well last night. You definitely know this already, but anyway... make sure you grab it properly, because the drag during re-entry will be abysmal.

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, Atkara said:

A pack of 7 Rapiers... so, cargo bays are out of the question, assuming the Pelican is a spaceplane -I don't recall ever seeing it, but on the other hand, I didn't sleep well last night. You definitely know this already, but anyway... make sure you grab it properly, because the drag during re-entry will be abysmal.

I upgraded it to four RAPIERs, which means it can make orbit with that payload. The Klaw will go where the docking port is now. It ought to work.

[Hotel26]

13 minutes ago, Brikoleur said:

It ought to work.

Speaking of which (Pelican), I am revamping my archaic mining system.  I thought I was going to get my new drill rig into a Mk-3 cargo bay.  (Same place you were  recently.)  Nup.

Which makes Pelican even more attractive.    But I'm testing a variant of my "Cruise vessel" system right now (and having re-entry problems).  The idea is you slap the payload onto a launcher, but wedge a descender shell in between.  The descender has fuel, reaction wheel, wings, a couple of Wheelseys for cruise and a couple of Twitches to deorbit.  The descender cruises to the target and then is shed.  The chutes do the rest.

It's a lot more work, obviously, to orbit and then de-orbit something.  But this *IS* rocket science, so I have to give it a go.

Update: rear entry is working better...

Edited January 26, 2018 by Hotel26

[RizzoTheRat]

I've not done any recover equipment contracts yet this game, but I'd have thought your Pelican ought to be pretty good at it.  If you're a KAS/KIS user you might find some of it's grapples or electromagnets work better than the claw though as it's quite bulky and you need to make sure the payload is aligned how you want it before it grabs it.

I'm thinking my SSTO boosters ought to be able to do LKO recovery jobs fairly well, I just need a claw/magnet equipped RCS powered mini tug to grab stuff and then re-dock with the booster for re-entry.  Now I've gone modular I'm trying to avoid re-entering anything other than attached to a launch booster.

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, RizzoTheRat said:

I've not done any recover equipment contracts yet this game, but I'd have thought your Pelican ought to be pretty good at it.  If you're a KAS/KIS user you might find some of it's grapples or electromagnets work better than the claw though as it's quite bulky and you need to make sure the payload is aligned how you want it before it grabs it.

I don't have KAS/KIS. This career I'm going stock parts and aerodynamics only (KER and AA are the only gameplay-affecting mods I'm using). Yeah the Pelican ought to do the job well enough; I designed it to bring stuff down rather than up after all -- its primary mission is to bring the ISRU, surface tanker, and habitat down to Laythe surface from orbit. Which is a recovery mission basically. I'll need to install RCS for this job though, in addition to swapping the docking port out for a Klaw. That's not needed for the Laythe work because the modules I'm bringing down there are going to be hooked to the tugs that brought them there, which have manoeuvring capability.

(The Pelican with the ISRU payload is among the most marginal designs I've built by the way, as it's really draggy. It does make orbit without too much trouble, but I do need to finesse it a bit. I tried adding RCS to it, and that was enough to tip the balance -- it couldn't build up enough speed to get into the ramjet feedback loop without my switching to closed cycle first, which burned up so much Lf+Ox that I didn't have enough left to circularise... although a really absolutely perfect launch might just have done it. So I didn't put it on the one I'm sending to Laythe as it's only convenience, not absolutely necessary -- everything I expect to have to dock with it does have RCS.)

[RizzoTheRat]

If you're launching or without cargo is it worth fitting a drop tank on the cargo bed?  More weight but longer burn time. 

[Mignear]

Landed too hard on the nose when slowing the plane down.
Gotta do something about it since it looks like the drogue chutes made it impossible to pull the nose up.

[LordFerret]

Trama rag-dolling at "Impossible Rock". What the heck is that thing?!?

[Just Jim]

8 minutes ago, LordFerret said:

Trama rag-dolling at "Impossible Rock". What the heck is that thing?!?

That looks like the buried rover head Easter Egg! I've been looking for that silly thing forever!

[michal.don]

Galileo planet pack, 3.2 x rescaled, carreer mode.

Second large mission to Tellumo, including a scanning sat and an atmospheric drone, deployed in a way I tested a few days ago and shared here.

Mapping the beautiful planet

Entering in a dart-like manner. Except having a 16-ton heatshield instead of the tip.

Suprisingly, it really worked. That doesn't happen very often.

So let the sciencing begin!

 

Michal.don

[Geonovast]

51 minutes ago, LordFerret said:

Trama rag-dolling at "Impossible Rock". What the heck is that thing?!?

<insert picture of R2-D2's eye stalk thing poking out of the sand that a Google Image Search failed to find>

[Guest]

4 hours ago, RizzoTheRat said:

If you're launching or without cargo is it worth fitting a drop tank on the cargo bed?  More weight but longer burn time. 

It doesn't need a drop tank if I'm launching without cargo, it'll make orbit with plenty to spare. And the problem when launching with cargo isn't mass as much as drag; the design is un-aerodynamic to start with and if on top of that I have something like the ISRU it really does not like to go fast -- it's much happier with a heavier but more streamlined payload.

Edit: that loss of engine pod was definitely a kraken. I made the other launch, and this time I quicksaved before detaching the payload. I had just time to think "well nothing bad happened this time," and then the Rukh got into an oscillation which rapidly accelerated and this time it shed not one, not two, but THREE engine pods. Reload and switch focus immediately to the payload, and this didn't happen. Huh. 

Edited January 26, 2018 by Guest

[Whisky Tango Foxtrot]

Yet another Jool mission. This one has a replacement crew (with their own return capsule this time rather than having to wait for one to be sent with another transfer window,) a hab module to complete Foothold Station, a rover for Vall and a couple of extra adapters (one Klaw and one 1.25-0.625.)

The crew is mostly semi-rookies (they've planted flags on the Mun and Minmus but they've never left Kerbin's SOI) except for Jeb, who's embarking on what may well be his final mission. Not because it's particularly dangerous, but because by the time he gets to Jool I'll likely be close to done with this career.

[Guest]

Oh man and I thought docking was tricky sometimes.

Sent up a Pelican with a Klaw. No dice. Wouldn't grab. Just kept bumping into the debris and sending it into a spin. It's a tight fit and I'd have needed an absolutely perfect approach and even so I'm not quite sure if I could've gotten the Klaw to trigger. I'll just leave that junk up there for now, there are more fun things to do.

[Atkara]

40 minutes ago, Brikoleur said:

Oh man and I thought docking was tricky sometimes.

Sent up a Pelican with a Klaw. No dice. Wouldn't grab. Just kept bumping into the debris and sending it into a spin.

I don't know if it's mandatory, but I always transfer control over to the claw, before grabbing anything.

 

[ShadowZone]

That was what I did

[LordFerret]

4 hours ago, michal.don said:

... snip ...

 

... snip ...

I like the use of girders to build that frame / cradle... I've done similar things, it works very well, very stable. Kudos.

 

 

4 hours ago, Just Jim said:

I've been looking for that silly thing forever!

SCANsat!

Edited January 26, 2018 by LordFerret
add a little white space

[Just Jim]

4 minutes ago, LordFerret said:

SCANsat!

It's not that... I have the exact coordinates. But for some reason that's the one egg I can't seem to find. I read somewhere it depends on the screen resolution, but mine's maxed out, and it keeps eluding me... I'm thinking it may be underground in my game.

[AngrybobH]

After the Eve mission, I started a retrofit of my interplanetary ship. I added a ring and changed the entire RCS system to hydrazine. I cut off the engine section and added a docking port back there for the new power section which will include new tech like fusion reactors and twin vista fusion drives. Making that ring with as few parts as possible was a pain and didn't turn out exactly circular but it looks and works ok.

[CatastrophicFailure]

18 minutes ago, Just Jim said:

It's not that... I have the exact coordinates. But for some reason that's the one egg I can't seem to find. I read somewhere it depends on the screen resolution, but mine's maxed out, and it keeps eluding me... I'm thinking it may be underground in my game.

HAve you tried the ScanSat BTDT scanner? It will at least tell you if it’s actually there, once you’re on the surface. Might be able to look underground with some trickery.