What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Kronus_Aerospace]

46 minutes ago, Krow said:

I've tried that but it still doesn't seem to help. Either I get into a crazy rotation (Yaw, I think? The Q and E controls) that makes it almost impossible to gravity turn, or the moment that I tap the pitch, the whole thing suddenly keels over and starts to flip. Fins don't really seem to help one way or the other. Never had these issues with the 1.25m radial designs so either I'm still not looking at things right, or 2.5m aren't built the same way as 1.25m.

Take a screen shot of your rocket, because I can't tell what your issue is then, and by the way "Q" and "E" are roll, "A" and "D" are yaw.

[NSEP]

Here's the stream, enjoy!

https://youtu.be/IGlOgwCjoJY

[Atkara]

Two landers circularized around Eve, with Gilly being their final destination: One is for commercial use and the other comes with a full science pack -which seemed kind of odd at first, because I already had a lander, docked at Gilly's orbital lab. And then I remembered: it's meant to replace the on-site science lander. The old one, will be fueled up and sent back to Kerbin.

Turns out that the monster I was working on this last week, can get 4 x large fuel tanks to orbit. That's 230 tons -IF I follow an ascent profile that doesn't involve overheating these two aircraft wings (around which the entire lift assembly is built) to the point of exploding. Easier said than done, with the framerates I'm getting, whenever this thing is airborne.

Val and her team are fueled up and ready for their return from Dres, recovery vessels are inbound from Eve & Moho and a favorable Eeloo transfer is nearing. With relays already orbiting the planet, it's time for a KSA-style expedition (KSA standing for Kerbal Space Agency). This means a main exploration vessel, accompanied by a miner, surface outpost and a car: launched, fueled up in orbit and sent on their way.

With the Mk2 line of SSTOs fueling up this lot, it will require 5 flights. With the recently acquired experience at hand, this got me thinking and... yeah, back to the drawing board

I'm a traditionalist (mostly) so, nothing really spectacular here. Gets two large Mk3 Lf/LOx tanks in LKO. Yep, now I can cut down the flights in half. If there's any spare fuel remaining, I can send it over to the station, my fuel drones use as parking lot.

A somewhat more interesting configuration, with 12k units of ore as payload. The refinery I have in LKO will appreciate it.

Now, my existing fuel drones can carry a single Mk3 large tank worth of fuel. I have considered launching new ones, along the lines of this early concept scratch that -drone design has been finalized:

Haven't decided yet.

Edited February 16, 2018 by Atkara

[Guest]

Spent way too long trying to plot a cheap trajectory home from Laythe by way of Tylo. Failed. Beyond my capabilities as an orbital mechanic. I think the sorta-kinda-resonant orbits have something to do with it -- Tylo always wanted to eject me in the wrong direction, but consistently the same ones. I figured that it should be possible to do this -- in theory -- by two passes by Tylo, but, again, too hard for me.

So plan B it is: going by Duna. That at least ought to be doable.

In the meantime, my Egyptian pantheon reached the Eve sphere of influence. Nut went into polar orbit and surveyed the body, while Geb dove down under the clouds. Osiris is in orbit, waiting its turn.

Eve is mean to planes but kind to rovers. That heavy gravity keeps them glued to the ground, and the thick air stops them from going too fast, even downhill. Drove about 20 km from the landing site to the seashore, and collected five (!) biomes on the way. Which, incidentally, maxed out my tech tree.

---> tangent

I don't like mobile processing labs. They ruin the game for me. This career I played with 60% science rewards and used MPLs only as bases to level up my kerbals (and early on, to easily reset goo and Science Jr canisters). This was much more fun. I especially enjoyed the midgame when I had to puzzle my way around rocket planes. 

Anyway, here are a few shots of Geb visiting Eve. Everything went according to plan except that after I dropped my engine pod, for some peculiar reason control switched to some very odd node that had everything reversed. Don't know what that could have been as the only control node on the craft was a probe core and it was pointing the right way; once I Control from Here'd everything was well again.

Craft here: https://kerbalx.com/Brikoleur/Geb

You might notice that the aeroshell is missing a tail fin. This only happened after they had separated -- it rolled down a hillside and flipped, coming to rest as you see it.

 

Edited February 16, 2018 by Guest

[Alpha 360]

Today, with this post, I now have 4 DOTS. FOUR DOTS PEOPLE! FOUR DOTS! YIPPEE!

[Atkara]

53 minutes ago, Brikoleur said:

So plan B it is: going by Duna. That at least ought to be doable.

Wise decision. I would've considered Plan A only as an exercise. In practice, even if Tylo ejected you the way you wanted, too many things could've gone wrong.

[Ultimate Steve]

I accidentally created a redstone torch.

[qzgy]

I had off from school so I could play things!

Messed about with a potential SSTA-ish. Lost probably now cause I didn't save it.... Can probably recreate it and there are kinks that need to be worked out anyways.
 

Spoiler

Also messed with SRBs.
 

Spoiler

And discovered that spider engines seem to be stupidly good at sea level. ISP is even better than twitch engines IIRC. So I built an orbital rocket. (not shown is a soyuz -esque staging)

Oh apparently you can just about see the boosters. Neat.

[Norcalplanner]

Did some serious hill climbing and descending on Iota:

Ended up making it safely down to the bottom with a nice view of Gael:

And yes, it's still classified as a plane because of a bases and stations contract where once I designate it as a rover, that becomes the preferred site for my surface base.  As you may have guessed, this terrain isn't particularly base-friendly....

[Hotel26]

I, Hotel26, have just published the Kraft 1.3.1.1 add-on [link]...

... it produces short-hand blueprints for your craft, e.g.:

Spoiler

Enter abbrev for craft: lady
Reading /home/kmk/env/games/KSP/1.3.1.1891/Ships/VAB/Ladybug.craft
   1    0   probeCoreOcto2_4294668150
   2    1     solarPanels5_4294752592
   3    1     batteryBankMini_4294660876
   4    3       sasModule_4294653348
   5    4         fuelTank4-2_4294607858
   6    5           SurfaceScanner_4294627598
   7    5           smallRadialEngine_4294599778
   8    5           smallRadialEngine_4294538614
   9    5           SurfAntenna_4294705612
  10    5           seatExternalCmd_4294534850

Enjoy!

[Guest]

Valgas and the Osiris made it to Eve. Re-entry went pretty smoothly, except that after transitioning to normal flight the craft was over-balanced and went into a flat spin following a careless manoeuvre. Pumping some of the remaining fuel forward allowed Valgas to regain control.

This time she only managed to break one radiator panel (tail strike upon landing) and one solar panel (bumped her head on it when leaving the lander can). Fortunately the craft has redundancy built in for these parts so it should have little effect on the continuation of the mission.

She really does have a flair for getting into trouble.

[Tyko]

18 hours ago, Krow said:

I've tried that but it still doesn't seem to help. Either I get into a crazy rotation (Yaw, I think? The Q and E controls) that makes it almost impossible to gravity turn, or the moment that I tap the pitch, the whole thing suddenly keels over and starts to flip. Fins don't really seem to help one way or the other. Never had these issues with the 1.25m radial designs so either I'm still not looking at things right, or 2.5m aren't built the same way as 1.25m.

can you post a picture or two of you rocket design?

[Hotel26]

Funny thought popped into my head on final to R27 at KSC...  "Why not put this in the drink instead?"  I suppose this was my Kerbal brain thinking.  [And you know how hard it is for Kerbals to resist impulses...]  So, you know, of course I did it.

So, I am about to waddle ashore, like the first, prehistoric, prototypical salamander -- and I've thought about lakes as natural airfields before today -- but this is now suggesting a new research topic.

A seaplane is an airplane that can "land" on a lake -- and take off again.  That would be pretty important for a rescue mission, 1,000 km out to sea.

But what if we're landing a heavy, laden with equipment?  A lake (if that's where we're going to build a base) offers a potentially long and definitely flat and predictable airfield.  Obviously, the aircraft has to be able to fly slow enough...  And obviously, the pilot has to be pretty damn good...   [checks manicure]

Then the aircraft waddles out of the water, delivers its load, and generally then needs a much shorter take-off roll (on land) to depart.  Q.E.D.?

Edited February 17, 2018 by Hotel26

[Pipcard]

Started a new base on the Mun

[Guest]

Shouldn't be hard. Most planes that can touch down at less than 50 m/s will manage ditching just fine. Only difference from a landing is that you're going a little faster and a little shallower; instead of flaring up and stalling the plane onto the runway so you won't bounce, you fly it all the way down so your vertical speed when touching down is as small as possible as it definitely won't bounce under any circumstances. (Why am I explaining this to a pilot though? Or perhaps it doesn't work like that with real planes...) 

If there's fuel left, they're also able to waddle along a bit. Many can even take off from water again, at least when partially fueled -- in fact, sample-gathering from Laythe's seas is part of Laytheabouts mission profile. 

[Hotel26]

11 minutes ago, Brikoleur said:

(Or perhaps it doesn't work like that with real planes...) 

I think you're on the money.  That guy, Sullenberger, gave everyone a demo in an A320 on the Hudson.

Watching that, my impression was that the tricky bit is what angle to hold the nose up for the optimum impact.  Too low and I think the low-slung engines will slam the cockpit down into the water and risk breaking the airframe.  Too high and the gentle landing of the tail will still pitch the front down harder than desirable.

He got the sweet spot.

Edited February 17, 2018 by Hotel26

[Guest]

Okay fine, so I had to make a flying boat. 

Haven't done any orbit trials etc yet, but it ditches beautifully and can take off from water under a nearly full fuel load (no payload as yet). Note that the two forward tanks are supposed to remain empty for buoyancy -- that way it rests on the water with the nose up. It takes some serious power to pull free from the water though...

I have a feeling it needs a bit more power if I want it to make orbit. But then I'm not sure I want to.

[ShadowZone]

I went space truckin:

 

[Servo]

I finalized and released my 1:1 Su-35 fighter

This was the first of my 1:1 craft with even remotely good top speed, probably because it clocks in at 250 parts, rather than pushing 400 like most of my other designs. It can supercruise thanks to eight Panthers, and push past Mach 2 at 5km altitude.

 

[Guest]

Okay this was way too much fun. Behold, the Long Umpire, for all your flying boat related needs:

https://kerbalx.com/Brikoleur/Long-Umpire

It won't go to orbit, but why would you want to go to orbit with a flying boat? It's a boat! That flies!

...

This one also takes off from water ridiculously well. Just make sure the wing floats are out of the water when you start building speed, otherwise you'll be making donuts in the water instead of flying. And if you find a practical use for it, please let me know 'cuz I sure can't.

[Starman4308]

It is time. The heavens are aligned. The sacrifices are ready. All has been prepared as it has been set out years before.

VOYAGER I

PRIMARY MISSION OBJECTIVES:

Flyby Jupiter and Uranus

Orbit Neptune

Flyby Triton

STATUS:

En route to Jupiter. First correction burn in 227 days. Over 3 km/sec of MMH/MON3 in the tanks after both planned correction burns, and over 2 km/sec after entering elliptical Neptune orbit. I may have slightly overengineered these probes...

 

I tried to get the historical quadruple-flyby, but the correction burns weren't cooperating, possibly due to being early in the window. I got the Uranus flyby on pure accident trying to set up the Saturn flyby, so I basically abandoned the Saturn flyby. Funny enough, I noticed I could get the Saturn flyby... on the way back inwards!

I'm also very confident now in the Gimel-4 launcher: I had 300 m/sec left in the Centaur upper stage, of which 90 m/sec was burned about an hour after Jovian injection, since with cryogenic hydrolox, it's use-it-or-lose-it.

 

VOYAGER II

PRIMARY MISSION OBJECTIVES

Flyby Jupiter and Saturn

Escape solar orbit, measure the heliopause (I even have the right equipment with a RWPS!)

SECONDARY MISSION OBJECTIVES

Flyby Uranus, Neptune

Boost solar escape velocity to maximum possible at final slingshot.

STATUS: 26 minutes to launch.

 

VOYAGER III

PRIMARY MISSION OBJECTIVES

Flyby Jupiter

Orbit Uranus, avoid truly juvenile humor

SECONDARY MISSION OBJECTIVES

Flyby Saturn

 

VOYAGER IV

PRIMARY MISSION OBJECTIVES

Flyby Jupiter

Orbit Saturn, flyby Titan

SECONDARY MISSION OBJECTIVES

Flyby all the moons!

 

I've also launched the final Mercury 1B, carrying engineer Craig Lane to orbit. Further manned missions will await design of a more capable vehicle; I still haven't decided on whether to focus on an enhanced Mercury, a Gemini, or even an Apollo-style vehicle.

Testing a new sounding rocket design:

Successfully docked a pair of unmanned vehicles in LEO, launched on R6-Agena vehicles. Lessons learned include use of spin-stabilization to hold orientation during much of the approach to conserve precious RCS fuel.

[SkunkTwerks]

THE REBELS ARE FINISHED!

...I mean, the SkunkTwerks Upsilon-Class Command Shuttle ATMO+VTOL is finished!

Link to Forum Post in Spacecraft Exchange: https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/166428-skunktwerks-presents-star-wars-high-fidelity-craft-designs/&page=4&tab=comments#comment-3297750

-SkunkTwerks

 

 

Edited February 17, 2018 by SkunkTwerks

[RealKerbal3x]

Today I miserably failed at putting a shuttle into orbit.

The mission: STS-2. The premise was to put my first space station, POLAB (which stands for Polar Orbiting LABoratory.... a proper NASA-style acronym) into orbit. The station is small: it is put into orbit in one launch.

The initial ascent went a bit sloppily, with me kind of straying off the north vector.

During the first orbit insertion burn,  I ended up passing up the apoapsis a couple of times. The shuttle’s external tank ran dry with an apoapsis of 107 km and a periapsis of 40 km. Damn. 

Then I timewarped too far (I hit the . instead of the /, dangit) and passed my apoapsis. Kerbal Engineer reported that I had 9 m/s of delta-V. Only nine. I think KER is glitching out. Annoyed, I tried to reload a quicksave I made after SRB sep. Shift-F1. What was weird was that A: the game would not let me quickload and B: pressing Shift throttled me up and brought my delta-V down to 7 m/s, but it did not put a dent in my fuel. Weird. 

I reverted to launch because I knew that I could not get to orbit now. One of the things that I have learned while playing KSP is if something is annoying you, go and do something else. So I worked on my expendable crew vehicle, the Aries. I finished building it and did an abort test, which went well.

I don’t know what I’ll do tomorrow. Most probably I’ll do the first Aries CTV mission to LKO. But I don’t know.

[McFarnsworth]

There's a launch window to Moho coming up soon, so in order to get the hang of this game again I built ... uh ... I built this ... thing:

 

 

Should work, right?

[Atkara]

12 minutes ago, McFarnsworth said:

Should work, right?

I take it you plan to use the heat shield as an umbrella and the parachutes are there for decor