What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Lisias]

On 7/25/2017 at 5:45 AM, Julien Kerman said:

During descent I realized..........that I forgot landing wheels

Dude, you saved my day. I don't feel alone anymore.  

Edited July 10, 2018 by Lisias

[Servo]

I did something I haven't done in a long time - I went to space.

As it turns out, I haven't lost my knack for space quite yet. I brought plenty of fuel but decided to rendezvous and dock on LFO only just for the heck of it.

Bill, Bob, and Jeb splashed down to a beautiful sunset 1/3rd of the way around Kerbin. So I decided to do something else that I haven't done in a long time...

This is the Loon II, and is a pretty good example of what happens when I'm not building to replicate a particular aircraft. Functionality first, performance second, and looks a distant third. In this case, the challenge is simple - create a seaplane capable of grabbing a MK3 pod in a cargo bay with crew space for four and Kerbin-spanning range. Believe it or not, this is harder than it looks. I resorted to RATO to get it to lift off, but testing revealed that it has nowhere near the range required. So it's back to the drawing board, again.

It's a different sort of challenge from what I'm used to, so it's a welcome change of pace.

 

[Fearless Son]

On 7/8/2018 at 12:07 PM, SpaceTrashCan said:

I finished my B-2 Bomber. if only it would handle well...

I am afraid I have bad news:

The real B-2 doesn't handle well either.

31 minutes ago, Servo said:

This is the Loon II, and is a pretty good example of what happens when I'm not building to replicate a particular aircraft. Functionality first, performance second, and looks a distant third. In this case, the challenge is simple - create a seaplane capable of grabbing a MK3 pod in a cargo bay with crew space for four and Kerbin-spanning range. Believe it or not, this is harder than it looks. I resorted to RATO to get it to lift off, but testing revealed that it has nowhere near the range required. So it's back to the drawing board, again.

I think the looks on that one are not actually too bad.  

I assume you considered using Goliath engines?  They are not the fastest or highest altitude engines around, but I figure their thrust output should solve your take off issues.  You must have another reason not to use them.

[CobaltShock]

Some more station construction. Have the greenhouse, habitation and life support modules done. Just need a larger module on the side for more legroom for the occupants of the station, and then a major solar array on the top and then we're open for business

I also got to work on a cheap direct ascent Iota lander to finish off our Nova program. 

This beauty can send 1 Gaelan to the surface of Iota and return for pretty cheap. Its cost of 160,000 beats the Nova Heavy B (220,000), and the old discontinued Nova Heavy (249,000). Likely not gonna fly until Sunrise Station is completed though. 

Edited July 10, 2018 by Steeeeve

[Lisias]

I took a Contract to rescue some climbers on a mountain.

And made (another) blimp to do the job - why not? Perhaps we should do it on real life.  

[Zeiss Ikon]

9 hours ago, kurgut said:

But you shouldn't be able to limit it anyway in RP-1/RO. Only late engines have a "few" percentage of thrust/throttle limit.

As I understand it, you *can* restrict the thrust in the VAB -- it'd be a matter of adding flow restrictors before the injectors, maybe installing a throat liner, easy enough to do on the ground -- IOW, making minor alterations to the engine and its plumbing -- but not (yet) controllable in flight.  For solid motors, it's a matter of changing the shape of the propellant grain.  Now, I doubt the game models the reduction in Isp that comes from running the chamber at lower than design pressure, but for something like a WAC Corporal, the difference between 100% and 85% flow shouldn't be huge.

9 hours ago, kurgut said:

Do you have KRASH installed? It's a mod that let you simulates your rocket in exchange of funds of course, in RO/RP-1, I use it all the time

I also used to switch between sandbox and career for testing before, but this is way better.

Yes, I have KRASH.  I'd been doing my experimentation in sandbox because, with the rocket at 250+ T, the KRASH cost was getting depressing, and I was more interested in proving the concept than in fighting with ignition failures where every revert was costing more funds.  I was pretty sure that save was doomed before I accepted the "first satellite" contract; I was "betting the company" like Boeing did when they built the 747 -- but without their "win everything" outcome.

[kurgut]

2 minutes ago, Zeiss Ikon said:

As I understand it, you *can* restrict the thrust in the VAB -- it'd be a matter of adding flow restrictors before the injectors

Ok, good to know, didn't think this had an influence.

3 minutes ago, Zeiss Ikon said:

KRASH cost was getting depressing

That's true (I play with "normal" or ( "easy" don't remember )preset because with career in hard and tech unlock costs it's getting nightmare to have just a bit money around, and it's getting a bit imbalanced) understand know :)

[Julien Kerman]

8 hours ago, Steeeeve said:

Sorry I'm sorta stalking your profile, but I was browsing through old posts on this thread & I kinda fell in love with your RSS/RO posts. What I was wondering is what mod allowed for the external tank? Is it a procedual parts texture pack?

 

I'm guessing you may not remember off the top of your head, which I understand. 

Hi dude, i am glad you like my posts  . Alright then, let me see....yeah the external shuttle tank was made using prodecural parts. But i dont remember the texture pack which brought this color 

 

You could check these texture packs...

https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/85342-jebediahkerman42s-procedural-part-textures/

 

https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/140136-battletech-aerospace-procedural-parts-textures/

 

Edited July 10, 2018 by Julien Kerman

[Colonel Cbplayer]

Tv always make it look easy!

 

[kurgut]

I'm keeping on plane stuff, three new planes: "Rescuk" (seaplane), X-0 (supersonic), and "LAUC" (Land Anywhere if You Can). Still simple for the moment, but focusing on having the most stable, maneuvrable/landable aircraft possible, so quite a lot fine tuning things.

Rescuk: 6 seats, landing at 55m/s, featuring buoys and ladder for rescuing poor kerbals splashed in hard Kerbin oceans.

more:

Spoiler

 

X-0: cruise speed mach 2, here in glorious anomaly mission.

Moore:

Spoiler

Hmm, strange those buildings down here, let's land.

Landed. Let's walk now (2 hours EVA walk! )

He looks Jebediah grand-father no?

 

LAUC:  landing speed 40 m/s, cruise speed 150 m/s, featuring 6 comfortable heated seats

 

More LAUC:

Spoiler

North Polar mission

and landing home:

 

Edited July 10, 2018 by kurgut

[avengerki]

Well, took a contract to build a base on Duna. Modified my heavy lifter rocket and base in a can to hopefully do that. First attempt at take off realized I had messed up the staging when I released my third booster stage and proceeded to watch the base detach also. 

Second attempt tried to circularize in LKO but had too much drag so ran out of fuel.

Third attempt went for a direct ascent profile and 3 hours later in its 3 minute flight time realized the angle was better for direct ascent to Eve than Duna.

While waiting for a new launch window for Duna I launched a 25 relay satellite to bolster comms in the future that I plan to orbit between kerbin and Duna or maybe further out. Also did a couple tourist contracts and transmit science contracts. 

The new launch window approached and I launched my Duna base again, only to have it wig out a hour and a half in. Went from being perfectly stable to tumbling for no reason and ruined my fuel profile along with drastically changing my angle of departure sending me back torwards Eve.

Now at the hospital for the wife's surgery, nothing serious, before I can make another attempt. Wife did see the fourth attempt and asked me if I had enough rockets on my rocket.

[CatastrophicFailure]

5 hours ago, Colonel Cbplayer said:

Tv always make it look easy!



Dat framerate doe... 

[Atkara]

Not much this last couple of days. Brought the Eve crew down to KSC and got them boots down to Pol. The Eeloo expedition is still 100 days from it's destination and Vall arrival ist still a year and half away.

This, leaves me some time to think of Laythe. I've identified a relatively flat region along the equator which can be used as airfield, as I'll be sending planes along the Outpost/ATV/MSM package.

Two Nerv-SSTOs will be sent -one to stay and one to return, because KSP. But I also want something with greater range, that will operate within the atmosphere:

Enter HALT MK1b. It flies alright on Kerbin, although I haven't tested it's aerobraking behavior -never needed to. In the worst case scenario, I expect it to want to nose down, hence the inclusion of extra reaction wheels in the mix. As for getting it in orbit:

This should do. I'll be launching it empty, which for the most part, seems to be keeping the torque in check. If it's proved to be too much, I'll go for a low-thrust circularization. The transfer itself will be taken over by a drone.

Also, I'll send this:

With 2.3k vacuum DV, doing a direct transfer looks to me like asking for it. So it'll stop by Duna and if the flight plan doesn't pan out, Dres too.

Still haven't thought what I'll splash down with. We'll see.

[Triop]

So today I've learned more about how to do these orbit survey contracts.

I found getting an SSTO in polar orbit will do the trick.

Thanks for being my testpilot @DeltaDizzy

Edited July 10, 2018 by Triop

[Lisias]

I managed to crash a blimp. Yes, you had read it right: I… CRASHED… A… BLIMP!

On landing. On a freaking landing. At fabulous 2.5m/s descent in a perfect atitude.

I misjudged the blimp's position (ILS? Who needs that bloody lines beeping on my cabin?), the front wheels touched the runway correctly, but the rear wheels where offset, and only half the starboard wheels took the whole weight, so they exploded - and then the gondola's back hit the hill's top, broke in half and the rest is history.

The nose wheels survived, however.  

[KerikBalm]

19 hours ago, Steeeeve said:

The launch cost was ~100,000, using an already made launch vehicle, so it was a tad bit overpowered.  It took a ~3 ton payload to orbit and had a decent bit of dV to spare. So yes, seems like my 3 man launch vehicles are much cheaper than a shuttle. I'd assume that I would have to sink ~1,000 into Kerbal R&D for parts that can allow me to make a shuttle that can not only get 5 tons to low & high orbit, but do it for less than 80,000, and recover not only the boosters, but the main tank. Certainly not gonna be done during the Cygnus program.

So excluding KR&D and part recovery mods, its about 33k per ton?

On 7/8/2018 at 9:33 PM, Steeeeve said:

1. about 31,500 per ton. Pretty lousy ATM (especially since I can't use kerbal R&D in sandbox to make a more efficient lifter), but considering that the cargo bay is pretty small, and that there's a built in 1 ton module in the cargo bay for control surfaces, batteries, RCS, and for 1 more crew (in a Kerb can), in reality It could probably handle the full 5 tons to orbit for 126,000 or 25,200 per ton. 

So my rocket (not airbreathing) rocket launches are on 3x kerbin (not 3.2x), 1.25x atmosphere, 1.5x terrain... I think this should be fairly comparable to 3x Gael (do you have the atmosphere scaled up 3x as well? IMO it shouldn't be because stock kerbin's atmosphere is proportionately way too high for a 1/10th earth analogue)

Going Space X falcon style didn't seem worth it in stock KSP, but it represented a large improvement over SSTOs in my 3x settings

Here's an example mission:

Spoiler

The rocket:

396075 funds, 672.236 tons, including payload at launch

The payload by itself:

78,200 funds, 25.356 tons, so the payload fraction was a measly 3.7719%

The cost of the launcher was 396075-78200= 317,875, so with no recovery: 12,356 funds per ton...

But the first stage did a retroburn, and landed, I didn't have to use quickloads for this, just practiced, I got quite good at timing the retroburn, and fairly precisely reversing my surface velocity at apoapsis:

That first stage recovery dropped the net cost down to 317,875-209,306= 108,569 funds for 25.356 tons... or 4,281 funds per ton

Now this next one I needed to quickload multiple times to get the deorbit burn right:

So that drops the net cost down to 108,569-52017 = 56,552 funds... or just 2,230 funds per ton

After that example there, I made another rocket inspired by the planned BFR, where the upper stage was winged and could land back at the runway for 100% recovery (I'm pretty good at adjusting AoA during reentry so no quickloading is needed). I'm still getting the hang of the return burn, and still optimizing the ascent profile on it, but in a successful test I got 51 tons to orbit, had a successful retroburn (in fact I retroburned a bit too much) and recovery of the orbiter on the runway... done in my sandbox save, so I don't have records of the net cost, but I expect it to be even better.

Orbiter, pushing 51 tons or full ore tanks to orbit:

Once orbit was attained, or the Ap is far enough away that I have time to switch back to the booster and follow it to the ground, I do... it comes in fast, at high Gs, but not hot:

(When the lower stage has about 1,300 m/s left, and the Ap is over 100km, I cut engines, decouple, and light the 2nd stage engines, and keep burning until the booster is 45 seconds from its apoapsis, I then switch to it, point it retrograde, switch the navball to surface velocity, and then reverse my surface velocity + 10-20 m/s... but I sometimes can't do that, I found burning 10-20 degrees up but not quite getting as much surface velocity in the direction of the KSC can be more dV efficient, but less precise)... then switch to the orbiter and complete orbit or push the AP several minutes out, then switch back to the booster and land it

I'm pretty sure that would be 97.9% recovery

The orbiter... gets very hot during reenetry

and in this case, I nearly overshot, but it flies well enough to make the landing from here:

That target on the ground 7.6 km away... that's the first stage landed back at KSC

So... its 3x, not 3.2, and I don't know what you've done with your atmosphere... but my craft are all stock (even though the planet is not), and get well under 5k per ton (and even less than that with airbreathers), not enhanced with KR&D, and get payloads into low orbit with orbital velocities of around 4,000-4,100 m/s (lower values for higher orbits, obviously).

If you're getting costs in the 30k's, then I'd suggest moving up to the Mammoth and Rhino, and consolidate small payloads into fewer large launches (the payload fairing nodes are great for taking multiple smaller payloads)

Edited July 10, 2018 by KerikBalm

[Triop]

@DeltaDizzy found some science point for me on his way back, thanks mate !

It's getting hot . . .

Looks like he survived, I hope he will also after his next mission.

[DeltaDizzy]

So yesterday I did the first legitimate docking in quite a while, and Im using lots of mods, as usual...

From a kerbals perspective as well.

==============Meanwhile==============

1 hour ago, Triop said:

Looks like he survived, I hope he will also after his next mission.

If he dies, you know what will happen.

Edited July 10, 2018 by DeltaDizzy

[Triop]

10 minutes ago, DeltaDizzy said:

If he dies, you know what will happen. 

You will rename a Kerbal, calling him Triop and launch him into the sun ?

[kurgut]

Kurgut Airlines Company is proud to present his first passenger plane: the "Hardbus H320". For the moment it's only a first class passenger plane, but of course, we plan to do a lowcost version (and put into a bunch of tourists!)

First class passenger cabin with all modern comfort:

Last passenger getting into the plane:

Spoiler

All in board, let's try to take off this flying scrap!

We're doing at the same time a simple contract (just fly tourists around) and our first test flight.

Take off at 120 m/s

Can handle pretty fast and maniable maneuver, here initial ascent at 100 m/s of vertical velocity:

Spoiler

We fly towards a base near a lake, but the runway is... a little short (and bad placed by the way). Not for us, let's go back home

Landing:

Spoiler

A little bit too fast here. And then, aborted runway landing since with all flaps deployed, its landing speed seems to be around 80~85 m/s.

But safe finally, Jebediah is jumping around, so happy with his new plane

Edited July 10, 2018 by kurgut

[Lisias]

WELL...

I tried this again.

I did a perfect takeoff from KSC, mimicking a airplane (just for the lulz!):

 

Then I landed on Island, exchange passengers and did a beautiful take off:

Everything has gone fine, I approached KSC using ILS, did all the circuit and then, on the final approach my son calls me with something important about his pre-register on college. Half to a minute later…. (open spoiler for animation):
 

Spoiler

No one bought the farm today, so.. I guess this counts as a good landing. And…Yeah, I TRASHED MY RUNWAY AGAIN!

Well.. Enough KSP for today. I'm going to bed.  

Edited May 4, 2022 by Lisias
fixing the images' link!

[kurgut]

2 minutes ago, Lisias said:

WELL...

I tried this again.

Haha, I've to try that one day, seems to be funny and tricky

[CobaltShock]

@KerikBalm

 

The thing is that the hitchhiker storage container was that 4 tons. The reason the cost per ton to orbit was so low was because the upper stage was over-engineered. Counting the crew module & fuel that was intended to be used to rendezvous with the station, the weight was more like 8 or 9 tons. Counting in the 6 SRB's from the launch vehicle being recovered at what I remember was 5,000 a pop, and it's 70,000 for 9 tons to orbit. I didn't really need to bring the 3 man pod, but I wanted to test it at full capacity & run a tourism mission as well. If I had planned this to be unmanned with just the storage container, I bet I could've lessened the fuel in the boosters or main tank and made the mission with a smaller launch vehicle (50,000 IIRC)

[Zosma Procyon]

I was testing a new amphibious mobile base design, and had a bit of an accident. I didn't deploy the wheels fast enough while trying to drive back on land, and it ran aground.

[CobaltShock]

While waiting for Sunrise Station to come into the right orbit, I pressed 4x physics warp instead of 50x warp, and so naturally the ship. Well..