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What did you do in KSP1 today?


Xeldrak

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9 hours ago, Cyrious said:

Quick Question: what is considered Low Kerbol orbit? Cause I have a magnetic survey mission that requires low Kerbol orbit for 2 of the objectives. Looking up the delta V maps say its 610km (which is stupidly close). Naturally, I'm gonna do it, just need to know how well shielded and cooled I need this thing to be.

The atmosphere of Kerbin extends out to 70 km (70,000 m). So setting up a satellite in an orbit below 100,000 m, or 100 km, you should have no issues. :cool: 

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Today I launched a Parker Solar Probe.

The rocket was way way way too powerful- I didn't have to use gravity assists, and even then the kick stage wasn't necessary- I would still have fuel left, even had I not used the SRB! But to keep with the launch profile, I stopped the biprop engine at 372 m/s to go, then staged and used the SRB for the rest. Fine-tuning will probably be needed. But the mission is going well. Passed Mun orbit at 37 minutes MET.

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I'm taking a Marketing course at the Univ. of Western Podunk so, for credit, I prepared a couple of "concept" craft for posting to KerbalX...

Cruise and Gizmo:

igEJIrM.pngMWcucTX.png

Cruise is a deployment shell.  It sits on any 2.5m-capable booster and the payload goes atop the shell in the fairing.  Orbital or sub-orbital to the general milieu; then Cruise at low altitude (range > 1,000km) to pin-point the target for a payload air-drop.

Gizmo, what can I say.  7 rockets launches in one.  Bean-counters at work, cutting Mission Control costs...

 

Edited by Hotel26
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28 minutes ago, -M-TheDoctor said:

The atmosphere of Kerbin extends out to 70 km (70,000 m). So setting up a satellite in an orbit below 100,000 m, or 100 km, you should have no issues. :cool: 

Kerbol. Not Kerbin. Basically asking what's a low solar orbit. Don't worry, you're not the only person to misread it. 

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5 minutes ago, qzgy said:

Kerbol. Not Kerbin. Basically asking what's a low solar orbit. Don't worry, you're not the only person to misread it. 

I've gotten to about 300 million Meters without blowing up if you want to be entirely safe I would go to about 600

If you have fragile parts go to 1000 no promises but it should be fine

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I sent my new lander design to Minmus.

0nLZRhG.jpg

I just re-used the same craft configuration as the Mun lander, so it's also got a science module, Klaw adaptor, landing module and some extra fuel.

After unlocking a few more nodes on the science tree I was able to build the mining base design that I'd created towards the end of my previous save.

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I never actually used this design very much on that save as I'd already sent different designs to nearly all of the minable planets and moons in the system by the time I came up with this one, but I'm looking forward to making more use of the new design in this save. Unlike the one I'd used throughout most of my previous career, this version can fit entirely inside of the largest-sized fairings, making it much easier to launch.

After sending the mine to the Mun, I used a purpose-built "heavy lander" craft (which I had to launch sideways to get through the atmosphere) to lower it to the surface.

ZOD5FK6.png

The mine works well, although it's currently operating entirely unmanned since it doesn't have any kind of Snack-production equipment. However, it has two docking ports on the sides that I plan to use to add some additional crew-support facilities to the base, which should be easier this time around since one of the changes that I made to the design was to replace those ports with new modded flexible docking tubes, which will make it less of a challenge to line the new parts up.

With the mine in place, I sent the heavy lifter module to Minmus so that I could land an identical mine there.

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Same deal as before; no permanent crew until the base can be expanded. It still works well as a fuel-production facility, though, even if its output it limited by the lack of an engineer.

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Well, it's been a busy week at the Doc's space center....

First, the Twilight 1. When I last mentioned this vessel it was in orbit over the Mun, plotting a landing sight.

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I am proud to say the crew successfully landed 15 km outside of the NW Crater, near the equatorial plain. 

Spoiler

30 seconds before touch down

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Obligatory flag photo op.!

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 After the required photoshop- I mean photo op, Jeb and Bob retreated back to the comforts of the lander while Bill got to work on building the rover... There were setbacks. SEVERAL setbacks... I didn't get screenshots of the ensuing chaos because I was so focused on the problem. The rover and science package were tucked away in the service bay in four boxes. After the boxes were removed and emptied, construction of the rover began. Bill attached the wheels to the bed of the Akita Rover, no problems. Went to attach the wheels to the Akita control module aaaannnd BOOM! The thing blew up with the wheel still sitting there. :mad: I revert to the quicksave I made just after removing the boxes. Ok, no big deal, it was a random Kraken attack, whatevs. BOOM!!! happens again. OK! There must be a physics bug with the mod interacting with the physics of the Mun. Turn physics off for a moment... nope, still boom. Ok... Well, let's just build the science package, it's a rover, so it can collect data for us! NNNNOPE!! Pull the wheels out and get ready to attach them to the rover chassis and BOOM!!! Rover chassis detonates and the wheel takes off for Kerbin. ;.; THAT'S IT I'M DONE! So, leaving a mess behind, the now very angry Bill climbs back into the command module, yells at Jeb to fly home when he says hi, and eats way more than he should before Jeb quietly fires up the rockets and heads home. But they couldn't get home before one more surprise reared up. Suddenly a warning light goes off, its a fuel leak from one of the monopropellant tanks! Bill groans, clambers out of the hatch, goes to the damaged fuel tank, forgets the duct tape, goes back to the command pod, and finally repairs the leaking tank (by the way, "Dang it!" is an awesome mod). After splashdown, Bill said only one word to anyone during the whole ride home... vacation.

SO! After that ordeal, we had opportunities for our newest batch of kerbalnauts. Two brave and stupid pilots and two brave and stupid engineers would be the first to test a brand new SSTO design, project "Leviathan." ... Tests have been less than stellar, literally...

xitRo7C.png

There were four Goliath engines when it took off....

Fortunately all four Kerbals were able to safely eject after an engine overheated and caused the left wing to shear off at the main spar. Several redesigns later, the crew was (unwillingly) strapped in and ready for another test flight. Again, there was a setback....

uX9EO33.png

The looks on their faces say it all. That was a deliberate act of vandalism. Management agreed we probably deserved it and didn't press charges...:/

At this point I come to you, oh friends and family of the Kerbal Space Forum... I CAN NOT for the life of me get a working SSTO. I can't get a shuttle up, let alone cargo... What am I doing wrong? Here are the specs for my current design...

frlrAHD.png

Help me KSP Kenobi's you're my only hope.

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The first Kannonball run, made by engineers Kasey and Richfrid Kerman and konductors Lenbro and Geofdun Kerman, safely delivers Kannonball #1 to Honshu Depot after a 700km sea voyage followed by a treacherous, unsurveyed run through the eastern foothills of Kyushu.  (Well, a damage report will have to be filed for the missing nosecone!)

P8Xb2Wc.pngWK3tqW5.png

Honshu is reasonably large and flat so we will be mapping out a high-speed route consisting of straight legs delineated by flags giving next direction and max safe speed.  Once surveyed, Kannonball's full potential for high-speed intercity link operations will be tested.  Trials will take approximately one week before the locomotive is released for public service.

What a lot of unexpected fun this craft is!!

Yes, and in case you are wondering, the konductor's duties are 1. to repack the chute after emergency decelerations, 2. change his shorts if time permits...  :)  Both konductors did go Kerbal-overboard a couple of times while stopped on the water.

Edited by Hotel26
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Took a couple less hours of my sleep sleep few moments to tweak my Stratolaunch setup some more, and got to thinking, as long as I'm building big, silly airplanes, I've already got wings on the core booster and it makes it 98% to orbit, why not make it fly back? Initial tests were... promising...

And then, this happened:

Here, we have the test mockup with a big, silly take off cradle to get off the ground...

iqULG0o.png

 

Clawed its way into the air kicking and (all 7 Junos) screaming, decouple the cradle...

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... which has five of those Junos, its own fuel supply, and suddenly a much higher T/W ratio...

 

Hilarity ensued...

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And explosions followed. :rolleyes:

 

MOAR testing! Two Junos on the 17-tonne-empty booster just barely maintains altitude at sea levelish....

zbaxOxb.png

 

But with four, the booster was able to get out to sea, turn around, and head back under its own power!

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Success! Landed with, er, almost as many parts as it began with. Just a few refinements needed.

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And then, this happened: 

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Poor, poor Bartrid...:unsure:

Edited by CatastrophicFailure
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Today, my exploration probe returned from it's long voyage with a whole lot of juicy science. And I actually managed to land it pretty close to KSC for max cost refund (which, considering its cost of 380 000, was rather desirable).

93zfb6nh515nrnqzg.jpg

Not bad accuracy for "flying" something that has only an ion engine to initiate and a bunch of overly-powerful reaction wheels to control reentry.

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4 hours ago, Triop said:

as usual

Dr Triop, sir.  May I ask a question?  Uhm, where's your nose cone and who was driving at the time?  :)

(Must have been co-pilot, Will Kerman, right?  ;) )

Edited by Hotel26
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Well, over the past couple days, in my RSS/RO/RP-1/Principia career "Take Six":

The original four, Jeb, Bob, Bill, and Val, were nearing "no earlier than" retirement dates, so it was time to give them some interesting rides to keep them in the program for a while.  Lacking the Redstone and the Mercury capsule to go on top of it, Werner and company made do with what they had available.

nubTcrw.png

That's Single Step C, an A-9 variant of an A-4 engine, burning Hydyne and LOX; it'll readily push a tonne to nearly 600 km (the original A-4 could loft its 1000 kg warhead above 200 km while sending it hundreds of kilometers downrange and, historically, was the first man-made object to leave the atmosphere).  It's also a well researched and reliable engine, though it lacks the power and efficiency to push enough stages to send a payload into orbit.  Inside the fairing is an X-1 cockpit (in this program, the rest of the airplane was never built, because Werner convinced everyone rockets were safer than airplanes).

9sBXhUL.png

This is the first successful object-to-object photograph in history -- Val snuck her Pentax aboard, preset focus and exposure by guess (couldn't see into the viewfinder with her helmet on), and took a few shots.  This one managed to capture her discarded booster, still only a few tens of meters from the cockpit.

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Bumper C (and its variants, Bumper C1 and Bumper C1+) -- an RD-103 burning Ethanol 90 and LOX, pushing a second stage that's a "fat Aerobee", an AJ10-27 burning aniline/furfuryl with red fuming nitric acid -- has been a workhorse sounding payload carrier, but its altitude limit was reached some time ago, and it still needs a lot of delta-V to reach orbit.  This, however, is Bumper D.  With two AJ10-27 stages (one with two engines, the second with a single) inside the fairing, and a solid kick motor on top of them, this one came very, very close to pushing a sounding rocket core into orbit.

pGAHV4g.png

Eventually, with a procedural avionic core, I was able to place the payload (Geiger-Mueller counter, barmeter, and thermometer) into a minimum orbit (this isn't that one; on this one, the RCS wouldn't start for some reason), but I had to find a couple hundred m/s additional dV to do it.

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Fresh from R&D, the Castor 1 booster.  Burning HTPB (syntheic rubber), with powdered aluminum for energy and ammonium perchlorate oxidizer, this solid fuel system persists to the present day (the SRBs for the Space Shutter and SLS use this fuel, along with those on Ariane and Vega).  Attach a couple of these, and I get the thrust to really launch with those liquid and solid stages -- still with the ethanol-burning RD-103 core. 

s8oXYJe.png

Still not perfect; the RCS needs some tweaking for improved control and a larger tank (since it provides the last couple hundred m/s to turn a ballistic missile trajectory into an orbit) -- but this made it to a 150 km perigee orbit, which was worth more than half a million funds to my program.  And the next task is polar orbit, which requires another 400 m/s or so (to kill the Earth's eastward motion, instead of using it).

ExTaX0W.png

This calls for Bumper D2 (and then, immediately, Bumper D2a after the first failure).  With four Castor 1 boosters, launch starts at 3+ G, and MechJeb can barely turn the booster over fast enough.  MECO is at 90+ km altitude, around 2000 m/s.

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With 2xAJ10-27 second stage, 2xAJ10-27 third stage, and a solid kick motor (can't offhand recall the kick motor designation, and don't have the game open), the satellite still needed a long RCS burn to make orbit, but make orbit it did -- and in a polar orbit, it covers all biomes (if you can keep comms contact).

XzDMDgD.png

With battery power enough for weeks aloft, this (and the earlier, native-inclination prototype) is keeping the R&D folks hopping.

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20 minutes ago, Hotel26 said:

Dr Triop, sir.  May I ask a question?  Uhm, where's your nose cone

A very sharp observation, Watson.

You made me showing the picture I didn't wanted anybody to see....Here is a few seconds before I lost my cone:

RsjG86D.png

Well done, sir. :ph34r:

Edited by Triop
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In Will's defense, youse guyz take a lot of hazardous, mountainous work (that nobody else wants)!  :)

I'm gonna take a lesson from this and splurge for a tail chute for my Triop C1 and see how it performs...  (Yes, I pop them still a few feet off the ground.)

Edited by Hotel26
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I FINALLY DID IT!!!! 

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That is the Hopper, SSTO-4, personnel shuttle. The variant pictured above is a bare bones SSTO for training only. It can reach a 75km orbit with enough fuel to deorbit and about 2 minutes of additional flying time. This is the perfect platform for helping Kerbanauts get that first star. The Bouncer, SSTO-5, is going to be the primary crew shuttle between future planned space stations and KSC. It sports five RAPIER engines and over 10k deltaV (most of which is used getting it into orbit.... :blush: I'm still getting the hang of SSTOs, but the first step is getting to orbit successfully, and I finally did it! Other than that, I got bored and built the fastest air breathing aircraft I've made to date, the S-1 Lancer. Got it up to 1,428 m/s (under 10 km) before I accidentally let my finger fall on the down arrow.... bye bye Jeb. I've never seen a plane fall apart that fast.....       

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My space program is in shambles. Current projects aside from a single heavy lifter design are to be terminated. Emergency overhaul of orbital infrastructure and assets necessary.

I will be deorbiting my overly complicated yet comical orbital fuel depot and all attached paraphernalia.

I will leave a fully fueled, fully boarded, cluster of ordinance in orbit awaiting future more modular and effectual space station segments that will herald the new age of space exploration.

Designs for the station begin tonight.

Edited by MisterKerman
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Aside from the persistent ~4kNm roll thrust from the side girders not being in perfect alignment during the dock, it works. The engines are gimballed though and I've got ample reaction wheel and RCS, so i can still maneuver with it and not make it a spectacular flailing mechanical Kraken. Future variants will have trim engines anyways.

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Which actually leads to my next question: Should i chuck this into the atmosphere and let it burn, or should I repurpose it into some form of space station?

Edited by Cyrious
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6 hours ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

My StratoLaunch grows ever larger... -_-

s3e6eFC.gif

Because all that is diculous, must grow beyond itself, and extend into the realm of the re-diculous...
#DumontNeverForget

Needs to be bigger. At least the landing gear should be the width of the runway. 

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