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What did you do in KSP1 today?


Xeldrak

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1 minute ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

Another plug for KJR, here. It’s what lets me put a 5m stack on top of a .625 node with no struts or flexing, and it’s absolutely transparent. 

1 hour ago, Geonovast said:

Well, ideally space stations don't explode when you switch to them, but KJR fixed that little problem.

Alright, Guess I'll give it a try tommorow then.

 

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3 hours ago, Atkara said:

It's not pretty, but it gets the job done. It does heat up pretty good during atmospheric interface, but not to the point of losing parts -that is, not anymore. Once out of the plasma phase, it has to nose down to 10-15 degrees below the horizon, otherwise there's a high risk to enter a flat-spin. Below 10000m, it's almost textbook gliding.

Interesting, the general layout is rather similar to mine. Looks like Eve has a way of forcing certain solutions... What kind of re-entry profile do you use? That Mk1 cockpit looks really vulnerable to thermal load despite the shielded docking port in front of it. Or does the shielded docking port create a shockwave that's sufficient to shield it?

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4 hours ago, roboslacker said:

Hmm. Let's see about that.

Of course, I was only kidding. That you went and attempted it?... points... lots of points! Kudos!!! :cool:

 

5 hours ago, TeslaPenguin1 said:

I agree. If only we could watch the Tesla Roaster crash into Duna Mars...:D

Bad enough the world condones and let this idiot launch a car into heliocentric orbit... yea, I've got issues with it... having it crash anywhere would be an even greater disgrace. Who knows what the future will hold for it. We just recently plunged an exhausted probe into a gas giant over fears of the possibility of contaminating the environment of one of its moons, or did we forget all that already. As we all know, those lithium-ion batteries are completely non-toxic and environmentally safe... among many other things. :huh::rolleyes:

 

 

In my world.....

Damn. Just. Damn.
'The Little Rover That Could' is now history, sadly. Pilot Orhat attempted to set a lander down near the rover, to pick up the driver and bring her home. The lander tipped over, and began a slow roll down the side of a hill. Melthy, the rover driver, attempted to use the rover to stop the lander from rolling... to no avail, and bad idea at that. Melthy was thrown from the rover, and the rover flung away and exploded into the hillside leaving only wheels as evidence of existence. The lander survived and continued its roll down the hill until settling level ground. Melthy got up and managed to board the lander with Orhat. Orhat went EVA and planted a flag in memory of the rover; And then, returning to the lander, together they tried to fire the engines and slide/fly their way up off the surface. Another bad idea. It didn't work. The lander suddenly exploded, complete destruction, leaving only lander legs and some ladder parts behind. Orhat and Melthy lost their lives. Very rarely do I lose Kerbals... this is one of those rare times.

RIP Orhat and Melthy.

(just before the takeoff attempt, the rover memorial flag is seen in the foreground with debris, and the lander off in the background laying on its side)
cCISbk4.png

 

:/

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20 minutes ago, LordFerret said:

lithium-ion batteries are completely non-toxic and environmentally safe...

Li-ion batteries are fairly safe environmentally. Lead-acid and NiCad batteries are another story.

(As to car, it's safely in solar orbit and won't crash into anything in hundreds of thousands of years, if ever, and if it does, it'll do so at such a high energy that it'll be a meteorite. Everything on it came off a planet, there's nothing there that's not present elsewhere in the system: a concrete block or iron weights would have been no less hazardous. Cassini was a bit of a different story as it was in Saturn orbit and could conceivably crash into one of the moons at such a low energy that something could survive to contaminate them in some way. -- I'm not a fan of Musk's politics and the way he treats his employees, but I have to admire is flair.)

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4 hours ago, Brikoleur said:

Interesting, the general layout is rather similar to mine. Looks like Eve has a way of forcing certain solutions... What kind of re-entry profile do you use? That Mk1 cockpit looks really vulnerable to thermal load despite the shielded docking port in front of it. Or does the shielded docking port create a shockwave that's sufficient to shield it?

Well, you want to keep the center of mass as close to the landing gear as possible -so, you expand to the sides. And you don't want something that's too long, or you're risking having parts of it, breaking off at any point between atmospheric entry and touchdown. While these are general guidelines, on Eve they can quickly become a "do it this way, or lose the craft" situation -at least for me. Also because you're separating parts of it, while still in thick atmosphere, you'd better keep things simple.

During the early tests, I was using just the Big-S Deltas, to save on DV. This proved catastrophic, as the craft couldn't aerobrake fast enough, resulting in obviously unacceptable heat buildup almost everywhere and for, pretty much every atmospheric entry profile I could think of. Oddly, the Mk1 Cockpit overheated to the point of exploding in only one test. let me rephrase here: the Mk1 Cockpit was the first thing to overheat to the point of exploding in only one test.

The addition of extra wing area fixed this, even for an entry profile of 110km Ap/500m Pe, similar to what I use for my SSTOs, operating on Kerbin. It still overheats here and there, don't get me wrong. Just not to the point of no return.

This additional aerobraking efficiency, comes with an extra benefit: the installed DTS-M1 can send and receive through the entirety of the plasma phase, while still retracted.

PS: There's still one thing that bugs me: The not-so-clean wing/side-booster separation. It doesn't damage the core of the craft, but I don't like it. I'm thinking of drogue chutes on the wing tips. We'll see how that goes.

Edited by Atkara
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Thanks! Interesting, your entry profile is totally different from what I'm using; I'll have to try that. I've been going in slow and high, Pe set to around 70k and drifting down from there. When I hit the lower atmosphere it gets very rough even so. I'll have to try a steeper profile to see if it's actually easier on the craft. I built the Orpheus to be as heat-resistant as I can though, which probably makes up for being less draggy in terms of thermal build-up.

My original Morningstar design had tons more wing than the Orpheus and it did slow down better, the trouble was that the wings came off when it hit thick air. However the wings were detachable with the decoupler an obvious weak point, so it's possible they would have stayed on if attached conventionally. On the Orpheus the wings/side boosters separate very cleanly, the big wings set back naturally pull them away from the core.

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1 hour ago, Brikoleur said:

I've been going in slow and high, Pe set to around 70k and drifting down from there. When I hit the lower atmosphere it gets very rough even so.

Before the addition of the extra wing area, I tried a periapsis of 500m, 40km, 50km & 65km. At one point I just plunged it, to demonstrate the worst case scenario to myself. Anything below 65km, ranged from not pretty, to catastrophic, which may happen to your craft too.

My problem was how fast I could aerobrake in the upper atmosphere, in order to find myself in a controllable thermal situation, the lower I went. This is what I prioritized above all else.

I'm not sure I like the idea of detachable wings. They do separate nicely alright, but as you said, they can't take much... a pair of struts holding the wing, on the other end of where the decoupler grabs it, might have helped, besides autostrutting... I don't know.

Edited by Atkara
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55 minutes ago, Atkara said:

detachable wings

Yeah that falls squarely into the "seemed like a good idea at the time" bucket.

Also, if I pull up hard enough, I can detach the wings now anyway. :D

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Julberry Kerman planted a flag at the crashed saucer in Kerbin's icecap.   Apart from the monoliths, I think I've visited every Kerbin "anomaly" for the first time.  (You see one monolith, you've seen them all...)

Tonight's challenge:  doing another thing I've never done before-- retrieve both a Kerbal and their craft in a rescue mission.   (Heretofore, I've avoided those contracts...)

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11 hours ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

It’s only going within about 69 million miles of Mars, and the cameras are most likely dead already :wink: (they estimated 12 hours). 

I checked the live stream. The cameras are still going. Good luck Starman!!

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Sorry, kiddies - capi remembered to take his screenies yesterday.

So, recapping: Necessary Evil had made several back-and-forth Alcubierre Drive flights as part of MSV Fat Man's consist, each time spending significant time in a 1.6 GM orbit over Kerbol, more than close enough to melt all of the ablator off of the heat shield nestled at the bottom of the craft's crewed command module. I needed to replace the shield, but in order to do that it would be necessary to completely remove the service module first and then put it back into place once the refit had been completed. To that end, I planned a mission to send up a six-Kerbal KAS repair craft to Necessary Evil after it returned to the Kerbinport space station with the necessary hardware. Thus was born I Like Hubcaps 7, which launched on its historic repair mission with Val, Bill and engineers Halzer, Leaemy, Dezor and Megkin Kerman aboard.

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I Like Hubcaps 7, successful liftoff.

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Coming into approach at Kerbinport. Necessary Evil is actually that little bit sticking off the top of the station out to the right. The booster I put on the craft was actually overworked; I made it into orbit without hardly firing the core booster stage at all.

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To help distinguish Necessary Evil from her sister ships Strange Cargo and Next Objective also docked at Kerbinport, I left the ship's solar panels deployed. Definitely was a good thing I did it, too...

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Coming into final position for grabbing. Without instrumentation or being able to use NavyFish's DPAI, this was some tricky work.

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After successful grabbing, I discovered I had to get a little closer to the service module to actually move the thing. The ladders were moved to the bottom of the command module and everybody began piling out. We also moved the replacement shield closer to where we were working.

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Even after draining the service module of fuel, we discovered we were one kerbal short of having enough manpower to move the service module. Fortunately, Bob was manning the station already, so he came out to lend a hand.

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With Bob's help, the service module was moved to a Cubic Octagonal Strut stuck to the side of the CM, and the old heat shield was jettisoned.

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Then the service module had to go back into place. Halzer and Leaemy both had to move in closer to where the SM had been put temporarily in order to finally put it back, requiring the two to do some free floating nearby. 

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Job finished, everybody piled back in and Bob returned to the station's cupola. The SM was refueled with bulk of the fuel from I Like Hubcaps 7's core booster stage before final departure.

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Re-entry was successful, the craft splashing down in the ocean about 80 kilometers west of KSC.

The repair mission was a complete success. For good measure I did a quick-save to ensure that the service module could still be ejected via staging after the repair, and after confirming that it could, I reverted. Everything's good to go at this point, and I know now that when I need to do this procedure again for the other ships (if I'm going to be using them for warp travel, it's gonna happen), I have a craft that can do the job. Going to make a few tweaks for the next time out, of course...

That took up the bulk of my day yesterday. Only other things that happened were the successful retrieval of engineer Edfield Kerman to the Ikeport space station and his later delivery to the Dunaport space station later in the day, and a 25-kilometer drive of the rover Indecision from the Piper Alpha refinery to the Hojo Alpha outpost on the surface of Mün. Indecision will be returning to Piper Alpha today if I get the opportunity with engineer Dilnard Kerman, who will run a refueling op at Mün since the refinery's commander is currently over Duna...
 

 

Edited by capi3101
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Today we tested my shuttle’s payload capability!

The description for the craft file that the shuttle was based on said that its payload capability was 18 tons, so I built a 19-ton ore tank payload and put it into the orbiter’s cargo bay.

Launch went well, and we reached orbit without too many problems, but after I watched the ET re-enter, the F3 menu came up and I accidentally pressed the ‘revert to VAB’ button and all my good work was wasted.

So, I launched again and we orbited easily. I’m leaving it there today.

For tomorrow, what are your strategies for landing back at the KSC runway? On UTP-1 I overshot the space centre by over 100km, so what’s the best way to do it?

Bye for now:wink:

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1 hour ago, capi3101 said:

4arZxPG.png

Your station appears to have some sort of infection.

6 minutes ago, RealKerbal3x said:

For tomorrow, what are your strategies for landing back at the KSC runway? On UTP-1 I overshot the space centre by over 100km, so what’s the best way to do it?

I put the de-orbit trajectory so it plops down into the water past the KSC about twice the distance from the KSC to the old KSC.  This usually brings me down to flight speed just before the mountains by the KSC.

But I have airbreathing engines on my shuttle, which gives me 10-30 minutes of atmospheric flight (depending on how much I use the afterburners - which are required some of the time, since running the engines dry just keeps me in a really good glide.

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2 minutes ago, Geonovast said:

Your station appears to have some sort of infection.

I put the de-orbit trajectory so it plops down into the water past the KSC about twice the distance from the KSC to the old KSC.  This usually brings me down to flight speed just before the mountains by the KSC.

But I have airbreathing engines on my shuttle, which gives me 10-30 minutes of atmospheric flight (depending on how much I use the afterburners - which are required some of the time, since running the engines dry just keeps me in a really good glide.

Cool, thanks:D

My shuttle’s completely unpowered during re-entry, but at least if I undershoot I’ll land on the relatively flat area between KSC and the mountains.

Should be good:)

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Just now, RealKerbal3x said:

My shuttle’s completely unpowered during re-entry, but at least if I undershoot I’ll land on the relatively flat area between KSC and the mountains.

Well... unless you land in the mountains...

 

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Just now, RealKerbal3x said:

I did watch Scott Manley’s video where he landed a plane on a mountain, but I don’t think my shuttle could handle an emergency landing like that.....

I had a couple of... uh... "Test Landings" where the thing came down on its engines, which exploded, then bounced up, pitched forwards, and plopped down on its gear.

2/10, would not recommend.

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1 minute ago, Geonovast said:

I had a couple of... uh... "Test Landings" where the thing came down on its engines, which exploded, then bounced up, pitched forwards, and plopped down on its gear.

2/10, would not recommend.

We’re lucky. NASA never had quicksave, quickload or revert.....

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12 hours ago, LordFerret said:

....Bad enough the world condones and let this idiot launch a car into heliocentric orbit... yea, I've got issues with it... having it crash anywhere would be an even greater disgrace. Who knows what the future will hold for it. We just recently plunged an exhausted probe into a gas giant over fears of the possibility of contaminating the environment of one of its moons, or did we forget all that already. As we all know, those lithium-ion batteries are completely non-toxic and environmentally safe... among many other things. :huh::rolleyes:

....

Hi.

 

I am not sure that the Roadster is actually drivable. I would not bet that it is. I would definitively bet that it is not.

The car is a joke of course but it's also a PR thing.

If I were an engineer assigned to bolting it to a rocket I would remove anything that "Might" throw a wrench into the works.

Anything at all that will make the launch fail as got to get out.

I do not know that the actual power cell from a Tesla have been tested in space. Out it goes.

Does it have vents? Does it use some airflow cooling? Liquids, grease that will leak, boil or freeze? Refreeze elsewhere? GONE

Airbags? Pyrotechnic never tested in space. GONE.

Windshield washer? Might boils, spill, pee on the windshield and ruin the photo op, leak and corrode something. Anything. GONE

Air in the tires? Might be OK. Maybe not. GONE

Replace the air with nitrogen. Why? GONE (I think the tires are solid or more likely they are glued in place and have no valve stems).

Could the "Starman's" harness unlatch pulling Gs at that angle? Maybe. Bolt it in.

Brake fluids? Gone for all the above reasons.

Can the front axle take the max forecasted G force? Weld, reinforce, replace.

Could the doors, bagage compartment open? Make sure it doesn't.

 

Thrust me. That car isn't drivable-usable on any road.

 

ME

 

Edited by Martian Emigrant
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22 minutes ago, Martian Emigrant said:

Thrust me. That car isn't drivable-usable on any road.

Spot on. You could see in some of the shots that the front wheel well is far too empty, save for some obviously added attach structure. I seriously doubt that car was much more than an empty shell, and I honestly find it very surprising so many people think it was, or that it was actually going to Mars. 

That doesn’t make it any less awesome, it’s a heckuvalot more interesting than a big concrete block, and those views! That’s the kinda thing to inspire a whole new generation of space nerds, a new Earthrise, even. Whether the car was really a car really doesn’t matter. 

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Osiris with Valgas Kerman on-board, with its accompanying probes, Geb the rover and Nut the relay/narrow-band surveyor, are in Kerbin orbit, ready to burn for Eve. This was also the maiden mission for the venerable Rukh-class heavy lifter's successor, the Lammergeier-H. 

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Geb.

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Nut.

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Osiris, just after refueling from the Lammergeier HFC1 (Heavy-Fuel-Cargo, first flight).

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Lammergeier HFC1 on its way back to the KSC. The payload attachment node is also being returned from orbit, because why not?

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Meanwhile, Laythe continues to provide magnificent views, even for a routine fuel transport flight.

The Lammergeier-H is a success. It handles better than its predecessor, is more versatile, more robust, and more efficient. It also appears the Kraken takes no interest in it, unlike the even bigger Ishtar. 

Note: I believe I discovered what summoned the Kraken. It was my use of autostrut to heaviest part. I believe that as the fuel load shifted to a part on the Orpheus, autostrut followed, and when I decoupled, the sudden reconfiguration invoked the cosmic dread lord. The Lammergeier H does not use autostrut to heaviest part at all, instead it uses autostrut to root or grandparent part where applicable.

Edited by Guest
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1 minute ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

Spot on. You could see in some of the shots that the front wheel well is far too empty, save for some obviously added attach structure. I seriously doubt that car was much more than an empty shell, and I honestly find it very surprising so many people think it was, or that it was actually going to Mars. 

That doesn’t make it any less awesome, it’s a heckuvalot more interesting than a big concrete block, and those views! That’s the kinda thing to inspire a whole new generation of space nerds, a new Earthrise, even. Whether the car was really a car really doesn’t matter. 

Yeah, I noticed the wheels being so far in the wells too. And that you can see right through them.

It wouldn't do if the wheels turned with all the vibrations. There is no steering mechanism.

Have you ever been in a car that rolled over? That's only one G. The s*** that comes out of the carpets is amazing.

Same with an aircraft that pulls a few negative Gs. It looked clean but it wasn't.

There are no carpets with the dirt from Ellon's shoes in there. Any loose washer lost inside the car that could come out....

 

Yeah, a shell. If you don't see it then it ain't there.

 

Agreed. Cool show.

 

ME

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