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What did you do in KSP1 today?


Xeldrak

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6 hours ago, KerikBalm said:

Ummm, are you talking orbital or surface velocity? the whiplashes have a hard mach limit that is lower than the rapiers

Surface, of course. And this isn't the flameout speed, I actually never trace on which speed they flameouts on my crafts, 1500+ approximately, I think, usually on flameout speeds rocket engines already works, so it doesn't matter for me. It's the speed that I use as the signal to turn on rocket engines.

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In these jet only designs, the rapier was delivering well over 200m/s more velocity at high altitude.

You must understand - that 200 m/s isn't an "dV bonus for using Rapiers", by much reasons. On the same spaceplane fuel fraction - Rapiers already fires more than 200 m/s thanks to their low Isp, while you reach 1600 m/s velocity.

Edited by Ajiko
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I just decided to re-work a bit on my X-26A shuttle.

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The vertical stabilizer has been reviewed for a better stability on Y, and an enhanced control at very high altitude. Also, two elevons were added to act as speedbrakes during the descent.

 

 

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Two of the Kickbacks got their thrust reduced to 90% while the last pair were still burning at 100%. The result was pretty nice as the whole burn time of the SRBs reached more than 70 seconds now; the reduced pair still being able to help accelerating until reaching around 22 km.

 

 

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Also, all of the 5 Thuds were re-calibrated to 100%, giving a better chance to raise the Ap to 220 km being flaming out. Maybe it was my memory, but I found this newer version to be much more easy to control too. Nearly no commands input were necessary after the SRBs separation, the craft keeping on accelerating smoothly while keeping its angle perfectly.

 

 

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T+05:10, saying good-bye to the External Tank.

Next step, the station!

 

 

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Powered under the pitiful thrust of its dual Sparks, the X-26A is really limited in term of orbital capabilities, having around 900 m/s available only after the circularization maneuver. Anyway, the meeting with the station was completed at 200 km without any problems, around 600 m/s remaining to de-orbit.

 

 

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What appeared to be a bit less slow with the lowering mass of the craft. Around 2 minutes... only.

 

 

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The re-enter went normally and without any inputs on the commands. The sole problem being...

 

 

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Another terrible trajectory during the de-orbiting burn, which resulted in a separation of around 80 km from the KSC.

 

 

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Hopefully, with its good gliding capabilities the X-26A was easy to bring back home. It also was a great occasion to me to try the latest stock speedbrakes acting in live, and they were not disappointing!

 

 

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Touchdown! The landing speed was so usual that it even made it useless to deploy the braking chute.

It seems like I will definitely kept the craft like this for a long time now.

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1 hour ago, KerikBalm said:

Why would a hole make a sub useful, when oceans that cover 2/3rds of Kebin, >90% of Laythe, etc etc don't?

...Depth? You can't exactly get 200km deep in a plane. Besides, maybe you can boast about it? To clarify, not getting crushed.

Edited by Kebab Kerman
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I did some R&D.

I wanted to try out the concept of a VTO/HL rocket-plane hybrid lifter: something that takes off like a rocket and returns like a plane. And I wanted to see if I can make an ISRU for airless bodies that works entirely by skycrane. So I combined these two: the skycrane-ISRU is on the bulky side and somewhat tricky to loft using my usual planes, so it was the perfect test payload. 

The idea with a VTO/HL is that it requires less tuning for different payloads than HTOL spaceplanes. Since the payload sits at the nose and the engines are at the back, the CoM starts out in front and shifts back. This is exactly what you want in a rocket, so the plane part only needs to be tuned for the dry CoM. It doesn't matter what shape or weight the payload is, it'll work just as well.

It wasn't easy, because I was still too fixated on planes. I learned a bunch of things.

First off, forget jets. They just won't work on a ballistic launch, and since the nose is so heavy, it will always be a ballistic launch. It's rockets.

Because it's rockets, and I want the whole thing to be recoverable, it's going to be big.

Once I got these things clear -- it took a while and a certain amount of frustration, as my attempts at small and jet-powered just didn't work -- I just made a big fat rocket, stuck some wings and a tail on it, shaped it with a few fairings, did a minimum of aero tuning (fun as always with a bonkers amount of power as it is on these things). Then I stuck the payload on it, and went.

It went. It really was as simple as advertised. I think I kind of like it, and will probably continue to use it for the occasions I want to send up something that's a really odd shape.

Here is the "Wangari Maathai" class of medium SSTO lifter (prototype), with a glimpse of the skycrane-ISRU. (Yes, it's possible to land on the docking port, even on Kerbin. I tried with some more powerful engines.) I haven't explored exactly how much it can lift, but it ought to be somewhere around 70 tons, give or take.

I wasn't happy with the thermal stress on the Mk 1 command pod, so I'm thinking of re-engineering the nose section. Perhaps use the Mk 1 cockpit with a nose cone instead. Would make it more plane-like too. Needs some airbrakes and such too.

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3 minutes ago, Brikoleur said:

:D:D:D 

But why?

Or, rather, what manner of fever dream did you have to come up with this idea?

Well, in between my bigger projects like my Mriya replica I need a bit of down time, and that usually manifests itself in stuff like this! It's not made to impress or wow, it's just made to be super silly and to make me giggle!

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6 hours ago, Hotel26 said:

I know that some people relish the realism.  I doubt they'd really enjoy working at NASA or JPL, though.  Too much realism; too much tedium.  Not enough scope!, when you are a single cog in an organization.

I think Randal Monroe's experience is instructive here:

orbital_mechanics.png

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9 minutes ago, Fearless Son said:

I think Randal Monroe's experience is instructive here:

orbital_mechanics.png

True, having recently completed my Highschool Physics class I can say with full confidence that having played KSP beforehand made the class significantly easier for me than otherwise. I know it has been said time and time again, but KSP's value as a teaching tool cannot be overstated!

Edited by Kronus_Aerospace
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Do you remember the reaction of Kerbal Motion's chairman, when his R&D team showed him the RoveMax XL3?

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Why... seriously, WHY?

40 Rapiers, 170+ tons of payload to LKO, handles like a pig... There must be an easier way to get things up there -oh wait, I know! Rockets!

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Almost there...

Game's starting to get a little irked at me.  Landing is getting interesting, since I now have 7 crafts just hanging out at the KSC

  • Shuttle tug, 35 parts
  • Reliant, 112 parts
  • Progress, 112 parts
  • Shuttle McShuttleface, 112 parts
  • Astrid SSTO-P, 49 parts
  • Astrid SSTO-P, 49 parts
  • ISRU unit (for refueling the SSTOs without recovering), 42 parts.

Thanks to @whale_2 for making this possible.

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Edited by Geonovast
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Sent my first probe into the Sarnus system from the Outer Planets Mod (MechJeb was necessary to set up the maneuver nodes for the 1 year transfer - a regular Hohmann transfer takes 5 years - as high delta-v maneuvers cause the ends of trajectories to disappear if you're setting them up manually)

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I decided to apply a little of my own brand of Turtle Wax to the RAPIER. I've only changed its plumes but I might repaint it too. The first screenshot is AirBreathing with cheats on as there's no Oxygen here. (The shock beads are not the stock ones.)

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Closed Cycle with convincing throttle response. It strongly resembles the spoilered thing if you smoothly throttle up!

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Spoiler

 

And some experimentation with the stock aerospike. (Gimbal added too). It needs more blue and a little less length... These will show up in the coming update to my part mods.

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Edited by JadeOfMaar
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Galileo planet pack, 3.2 x rescaled. I left my carreer save for a while and experimented with SSTO spaceplanes in sandbox. And after much tweaking, I managed to build a plane that gets 5 tons of payload in a 130 x 130 orbit.

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A beautiful plane, if you ask me :) But a bit lazy on ascent - it takes a while to build speed to climb to higher altitudes. It reaches around 1600 m/s on jets, the remaining ~2300 m/s are achieved in closed cycle mode. Fuel margins are pretty much non-existent, there is just enough for an entry burn left in orbit.

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It handles pretty well on descent though, despite the lack of an RCS system of any kind - it would bite into payload capacity too much.

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Still, I have to admit, I'm pretty proud of myself, I was not sure whether SSTOs are possible at all in 3.2x size, with the orbital velocity of ~4.2 km/s.

MIchal.don

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I keep posting things I did yesterday instead of things I did today:confused: @Xeldrak maybe we should rename this thread to 'What did you do in KSP yesterday?' (joking of course)

I was planning to land STS-1 back at KSC, but damn IRL stuff (I swear the rest of my life is only there to stop me playing KSP :sticktongue:) stopped me from playing for that long. Roleplay alert: pretend that bad weather at KSC prevented them from landing. I just designed a new training aircraft, the Lancer. It flies pretty well, and can get up to almost mach 3. But it is too heavy for making a good landing. Also, no pictures. Sorry. 

Bit of a disappointing KSP-time actually. Wait, I'll find a random screenshot from my folder...

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There we go..... a pic from my landing on Minmus to keep you happy.

Er..... thanks for reading I guess:rolleyes:.

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In a confirmation of what we already know, I designed a shuttle to take a jumbo to LKO. This endeavor has filled my playing time for the last few days, and the shuttle is pretty nerve wracking to get to orbit and back. The non-reusable parts amounted to ~60 000. Incidentally, my rock solid Raven Vb launcher takes a similar payload to LKO at ~70 000, taking half the time and absolutely no brains to fly. So back to the basics we go.

In hindsight, it might be due to the fact that the Ravens are the result of a long research into boosters, while the shuttles are more or less thrown together to look shuttle like and then improved upon until orbit is possible. But the time to land them taxes my patience and my skill to much for routine and resupply missions.

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On 2/12/2018 at 8:46 AM, Kebab Kerman said:

Seriously though, are you lifting an entire house into orbit?

*Sudden realization*

Hmmmm....

I thought that's why asparagus staging and TweakScale were invented!  <8-p

 

ObThreadTopic: I spent the last two days - and maybe as much as one KSP clock hour) tweaking designs, practicing EVA and testing equipment, and lofting pieces of Agglutination Station the Kerbinated Orbital Laboratory  (and throwing a crew module at the Mun to eventually house kerbals there at that currrently-unoccupied orbiting lab) and pondering the mysteries of orbital rendezvous's. Also wondering how high a part count I can get in one area before I get Kraken'd, and whether we can afford more RAM this month and continue eating food {humor} instead of the less-wary neighbors{/humor}. Today, I may get to clock the two hours until Munar SOI and the extra hour or so to Munar orbit circularization, at which point my manned lander can begin collecting orbital SCIENCE! (I think that has to be all-caps and exclaimed). 

The problem/benefit of Kerbal Alarm Clock is that it makes it trivially easy to interleave missions; I've currently got six or so waiting in high orbit for a Eve/Gilly sort-of-transfer-window-if-I-did-it-right, two more on the way already which I have little hope for 'cause I didn't do those right, three or four probe-sets going to Minmus which need circularization burns when they get there, another few going to/around the Mun, the aforementioned manned Mun lander, and *counts on fingers* four large pieces of orbital station at various points in their rendezvous cycle. But I also need to take some new instruments around Kerbin (for MOAR SCIENCE!) (yep, needs to be all-caps and exclaimed) and make sure I have an orbital survey scanner around Mun and Minmus, and make more launches if I don't.

 

Edit: Oh! And I got two pictures of a baby kraken! (upper window, by the other module's hatch)R9rj5TB.jpg

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Seriously, what is that?

Edited by InterplanetJanet
Oh, and it's Year 1 Day 23.
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3 hours ago, RealKerbal3x said:

 maybe we should rename this thread to 'What did you do in KSP yesterday?' (joking of course)

I'm not.   I figure so long as I post within 24 hours, it's still the same day somewhere.   (6 hours for Kerbin, but...)   Since I usually post from work :blush: I'm nearly always talking about the previous evening...

Speaking of which, most of it was taken up by non-KSP stuff.  What's up with that?!?  I did pop in briefly to clip a space telescope into a space station science module... not entirely pleased with the result, so more work on this later today...

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I went to the Mun! Again!

I also made a news article for the landing. Enjoy!

 

The crackling of the radio held up for two terrifying, heart-stopping minutes. At the KSC, a long, yellow comet streaked through the sky at speeds recorded at a monstrous, almost fatal 1600m/s. The world waited with bated breath for the landing of Apollo 2.

 

------

 

A week earlier, Colonel Genemon Kerman, Captain Dake Kerman, and Lieutenant Hailorf Kerman boarded the new and improved OUSA "Titan" rocket, official designation OUTA05. In many aspects, the "Titan" assembly was the same that took Jeben, Bobous, and Valentine Kerman to the Mun back in the 2040's. The "Titan" had undergone multiple changes to the main fuel tanks, allowing for more fuel with the same size.

 

At approximately 1:32PM Owlian Standard Time, the Apollo 2 took off from the Cape Styx Space Center- the 3 SRBs and main engine on the "Titan" wrenching the multi-ton spacecraft up into the air with a loud roar that could be heard for miles around.

 

Almost immediately, a major problem surfaced. After the Gravity Turn at 1000m, the Apollo 2's prograde mark began to sag drastically. At the point where the prograde should have been at 45º, the prograde was pointed at a terrifying 20-25º. The initial consensus was to abort the mission, but moving at 1200m/s and at an altitude of 18000 meters, an abort would be suicidal. Eventually, after the separation of the SRB engines, the velocity levelled out, allowing the team to ascend into orbit. Somewhere above the continent of Kafrica, a circularization burn was made. Eventually, after a 40-second burn, the orbit of 110km was finalized.

 

The crew stayed in orbit for well over 180 minutes, snapping photos of the sunrise and sunset. The astronauts took photos of many locations. The mountains of the KSKM. The shimmering lakes of Owlia. The sunrise and reflections of the Kolus Desert. For 180 minutes, the crew of Apollo 2 captured the beauty of Kerbin from 80 miles above.

 

A day into their mission, the Mun and Mission were aligned perfectly. The crew fired up their "Rhino" rocket engine, and using the power of the engine the craft sped away from Kerbin at over 2 kilometers per second. The craft and crew remained on their path for 2 days, waiting to come into contact with the pale white rock known as the Mun. Upon the intercept of the body, the Titan II Orbital Engine pushed the craft retrograde, lowering the orbit little by little. Finally, the craft was in position. Prior to the separation of MLM (Munar Landing Module), Captain Dake took the first ever Space Walk in Owlian History- inspecting the engine and taking photos of the Mun, Kerbin, and the Sun all in one shot, which captivated the world.

 

"It's really beautiful... Just seeing this. It's both amazing and terrifying to look out and see the only place you've ever known.. It makes you feel so tiny, but so big at the same time."

 

When Dake returned to the Apollo 2 Capsule, the MLM detached from the command module and plotted its burn down to the foreign surface of the Mun. The craft, entering at an immense 1000 m/s, slowed rapidly as it went down to the Munar Surface. At 11 minutes and 30 seconds past the hour, the MLM, nicknamed the Eagle by the engineers and crew of Apollo 2, successfully touched down on the surface of the Mun- kicking up eons-old dust.

 

"Control, this is Genemon Kerman of Apollo 2. The Eagle has landed."

 

The landing party of Genemon and Hailorf Kerman trekked on the Mun for 20 minutes, taking samples of Mun rocks, testing the gravity, and enjoying the view of the Sun rising over Kerbin's horizon. As soon as the Command Module was above, the MLM raced towards the Command Pod.

 

Following this, the crew stayed in orbit of the Mun for another day, before it was time to return home. Two days later, the crew returned to the orbit of Kerbin. Dumping the now empty MLM to burn up in the atmosphere, it was time for the crew of Apollo 2 to return home.

 

Detaching from the Command Modules engine, the Command Pod was left floating, helpless as it hurtled through the atmosphere of Kerbin. The pod, entering at almost 2000m/s, would have burned up in the atmosphere without the heat shield. In the sky above the KSC, a yellow, bright comet with a tail taller than mountains streaked through the sky- plasma and heat illuminating air as it flew. There was a 3-minute long communications blackout as the crafts radio was unable to make contact with the surface.

 

In the Mission Control room, there was tense breathing as the staff watched on. "Apollo 2, this is Control, come in." The message was repeated 3 times by Control, and met with only static. There was tense silence, before the triumphant cry of "CHUTES DEPLOYED!!!" From Genemon Kerman led to an eruption of cheers from Control. At an altitude of 5000 meters, Orange parachutes trailed out of the top of the rocket, signifying a successful deployment. At 1000 meters altitude, they deployed- allowing for a safe splash-down. Moments after a successful splashdown, the Owlian Coast Guard- operated RH96 launched from the USS Hornet Aircraft Carrier, and picked up the astronauts from their capsule bubbing on the ocean surface. A parade is expected to be held soon for the pilots who are no doubt heroes to all.

 

Oh, and I made a mission transcript (i.e. just copy-pasting the whole discord conversation I was having to get help. I was flight, they were control. Enjoy!)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1r0muMZwHlL91kN8AjVCscxrKJHEVcy-lWLm4uPg2t7g/edit?usp=sharing

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Slow day yesterday. The Old Bessie 7a craft conducted a refueling operation at the Scan Queen refinery on Ike and burned to return to the Dunaport space station, and in the meantime tourists Mardorf and Gempond Kerman returned from MSV Fat Man in orbit of Kerbin to the Kerbinport space station aboard a Spamcan 7a lander. That was pretty much it for the operational game.

I actually spent most of my day fiddling around with Firespitter. I'd been thinking about how I was going to go about with the exploration of Eve and I'd read somewhere that electric prop engines (ala Firespitter) were actually a very good choice (if you could get them there, naturally). So, I mainly was doing that.

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Val testing the Bad Idea 6, a prop plane powered solely by RTGs. For not knowing what I was doing, the plane handled pretty well - though next time I'll be sure to include airbrakes in the design...

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Later on, I built a Fokker D.VII replica and let Val try it out. How the hell anybody tried to fight a war with a WWI plane is beyond me. And yes, the noise from her buzzing the tower was still enough to make the chief controller spill hot coffee all over himself...... 

I still haven't decided if I'll actually go this route with Eve. I'm sure the planes would fly beautifully, but the notion of being limited to the lower trans-sonic regime at best sounds...unnecessarily time-consuming.....

Edited by capi3101
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hsYYnth.jpg

I realize many people do not know about the symmetry glitch, so I'll just explain it here, just take a part which we will call the parent part and radially attach other parts to it, we will call these the daughter parts, take the parent part and radially attach it to another part, which we will call the grandparent part. Lets say the daughter parts were attached to the parent part with 8 way symmetry, if the parent part was then attached to the grandparent part with 8 way symmetry that will give a total of 64 daughter parts. If you then attach a part to the daughter parts with symmetry on it will bump the symmetry number all the way up to 64, you can than move this part and attach them to the grandparent part or any part in line with it, and it will place that part with 64 way symmetry! This effect can be stacked to get 512 way symmetry and beyond. This effectively allows you to multiply symmetry numbers, so if you attached the daughter parts with 6 way symmetry and the parent parts with 2 way symmetry that would give you 12 way symmetry. Another nice thing is that when reattaching the part that you just attached to the daughter parts you can press shift+x to reduce the symmetry number by 1, so if you were starting with 64 way symmetry you could bump that down to 63 way symmetry, or 62, or 61, or 60, etc. This is how I was able to accomplish the 40 way, 32 way, 24 way, 16 way, and 10 way symmetry on the bottom of this rocket, which you can see by looking at the staging sequence in the image included above.

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