What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Mister_Casual97]

So about that minmus lander/orbiter, that mission is done, here's the overview.





I separated the fairing a little early, but that was okay, as the little probe still made orbit.





Do not worry, my friends, I meant to put it on its side. It wasn't very stable on the landing legs, so putting it down on the solar panels was the better option, lest I wanted it to fall over without control and explode.

So mission summary, it didn't have enough Dv to make the orbit the contract wanted, so I took it straight to landing. Thankfully it was worth it for the science, So I'm happy with that. I might launch another one of these on a larger lifter to get it that extra distance, but until then, this is what we got.

[Zosma Procyon]

10 hours ago, Torn4dO said:

never autostrut ANY part of the ring to root/heaviest part

Oh. Okay. *takes a long hard look at own life*.

What about rigid connection? Does it cause any problems?

[Triop]

Restarted 80 days around Kerbin because Jeb is no more, Bill is our man now in the new Bugger buggy.

We start calling him "Bugger Bill"

74 days left.

[MaverickSawyer]

1 hour ago, Zosma Procyon said:

Oh. Okay. *takes a long hard look at own life*.

What about rigid connection? Does it cause any problems?

I have rarely used it, tbh. I've always used autostrut to grandparent. That seems to kill pretty much and and all shaking.

[Cavscout74]

Launched a new surprise into orbit.  For scale, the core is 5m, with 3.75m radial boosters & 3.75m upper stage.

Still going up, shedding the radials

Coming out of its shell

I modified my fusion rocket crew cycler into a 15-seat deep space exploration vehicle with the addition of a centrifuge hab.  The dV dropped to around 75000 m/s, and I may have to add more snacks & greenhouse supplies to support the larger crew.  But here it is:

I also found a few minutes to throw together another historically based jet to buzz around in.  I think it looks fairly close to the real life inspiration (at least for the 10 minutes I spent on it).   Only had time for a single flight, and it flew wonderfully.  With flaps, it just takes off on its own, no pitch input required.  On the downside, you just about have to land nose wheel first to get it on the ground, so it needs a little tweaking. 

Edited February 2, 2019 by Cavscout74

[Zosma Procyon]

16 minutes ago, MaverickSawyer said:

I have rarely used it, tbh. I've always used autostrut to grandparent. That seems to kill pretty much and and all shaking.

Grandparenting did the trick.

[Espatie]

I've been playing around with Ultra-lightweight concepts for Mun Landers in the VAB. Trying to cut it down to less than half a ton wet mass per Kerbal to the surface (from LMO) and I've just about got a working design - I think.

 

So tomorrow will probably entail testing on the Mun.

[Schwarz]

9 hours ago, MaverickSawyer said:

Great... Where's an Su-57 with pulse lasers when you need one? https://www.orbiter-forum.com/images/smilies/lol.gif

All kidding aside, excellent recreation of those drones. GOD they were annoying to shoot down...

Interesting enough, extending the wings doesn't help at all, only makes it worse in most categories.

[MaverickSawyer]

4 minutes ago, Schwarz said:

Interesting enough, extending the wings doesn't help at all, only makes it worse in most categories.

Well... Why let real physics get in the way of having a good time, right? 

[Schwarz]

2 minutes ago, MaverickSawyer said:

Well... Why let real physics get in the way of having a good time, right? 

Haha, exactly! I've made a size-accurate one before this one, only to find out the airframe is just too draggy for the AJE engines, had to make a smaller one and make subtle changes here and there.
I'll just let this Raven stay how it looks, craft another one with real life improvements I have in mind.

[Castille7]

I made a Catamaran today! 

 

Edited February 2, 2019 by Castille7

[Triop]

17 minutes ago, Castille7 said:

I've been around Kerbin once and recommend it to everyone, it's fun and ther is so much to see! I plan to do it again one day.

Thank you for your motivating words.

You did it, so you know it's not just something you do in a couple of hours.

I find blogging my trip helps me to push for the goal, I kinda owe it to the people who follow my adventure.

I love the sail on your catamaran, if only we had a wind mod, or any kind of weather mod.

Would be cool if you where at sea in your catamaran through a thunder storm.

I'm a big fan of your work btw.

Edited February 2, 2019 by Triop

[Castille7]

8 minutes ago, Triop said:

Thank you for your motivating words.

You did it, so you know it's not just something you do in a couple of hours.

I find blogging my trip helps me to push for the goal, I kinda owe it to the people who follow my adventure.

I love the sail on your catamaran, if only we had a wind mod, or any kind of weather mod.

Would be cool if you where at sea in your catamaran through a thunder storm.

This journey took me 8 Days!!

Edited February 2, 2019 by Castille7

[Triop]

31 minutes ago, Castille7 said:

This journey took me 8 Days!!

Well, I'm not racing, it's gonna take a lot longer for me, trying to do it as realistic as possible. I'm doing this for the learning experience mostly.

I've learned a lot about KIS mod on my trip so far, I was able to rescue fallen over trucks, repaired a nosewheel from a upsidedown jet (yes, that happened), destroyed a runway, blew up a truck, killed Jeb and repaired a wheel.

I love this game

Edited February 2, 2019 by Triop

[Triop]

Something went wrong here, have a kitten instead:

 

Edited February 2, 2019 by Triop

[Fraktal]

In today's adventure, the engineers at the KSC finally finalized the schematics of the RD-2 lander stage for the Explorer-3B lander. In particular, the engineers decided to install an approach control system consisting of 8 small monopropellant thrusters, calculated to have a TWR of 1.34 under munar gravity and intended to take over from the primary lander engine during the final approach. While fabrication and  was underway, Jeb volunteered to test out the also finalized concept for the Transport-1 personnel shuttle on a munar flyby, with Bill and Val as passengers. Val has never been to space, so the two days in microgravity were good learning experience for her.

As soon as Transport-1 splashed down and the crew arrived back to the KSC, Jeb only took a short break before boarding the freshly completed Explorer-3B on its maiden voyage to the Mun. As usual, Bob accompanied him in the secondary cockpit as science officer. Bill and Val both saw them off at the launch before Val headed for home; Bill stayed at Mission Control for a while longer to oversee the munar insertion burn, as the crater targeted by the science division for this mission's landing site was perilously close to the northern pole's treacherous terrain and required a very high-inclination orbit to reach. Once Jeb reported back to mission control that the burn was successfully executed, Bill headed home, content that as always, his colleagues got this mission in the bag.

----

The phone call came during the night, startling him awake. Groggily trying to blink sleep out of his eyes, Bill only managed to pick up the receiver on the third try. - "'m here." - he mumbled, suppressing a yawn.

"Come to Mission Control, now." - came Val's terse voice. - "We have a problem."

----

"I'm here, boss." - Bill said quietly as he tapped Gene on the shoulder. Even with everyone working quietly and professionally at their terminals, the tense atmosphere in Mission Control was evident.

"Good." - Gene thumbed at Val behind him. - "She told you what happened?"

"The quick version. Run it by me again."

"Deorbit burn took place at 47 kilometers above the target area. Jeb had some problems bringing the approach control system online, but he managed to get it working. Apparently some of the fuses were installed backwards and shut the thrusters down when he hit the priming switch; the crew is looking into it now. Anyway, the landing site was a bust: the flattest area Jeb managed to find was still sloped 10°."

Bob winced. - "Yikes. That's more than half of what the landing struts can take under munar gravity."

"I know, but it gets worse. By the time the lander reached the crater, the area was dangerously close to the terminator."

"The site was in the shadow?"

"Yes. Jeb was forced to take off and relocate. Luckily, there was a hole in the crater rim exactly in Kerbol's direction and the initial site was just a few hundred meters south of the edge of the shadow so he didn't have to go far, but he had to put it down at 12°."

"Damn. How much fuel did he use up?"

"The lander had just over 1200 at landing and Jeb used less than 200, so it went better than we expected." - Gene sighed. - "Problem is, by the time Bob finished running the experiments, the shadow caught up with them and they only had power for one transmission."

"So what, they dumped the sample?" - Bill guessed.

"No." - Gene replied flatly. - "Bob hung off the secondary cockpit's ladder with one hand while holding the sample in the other hand during takeoff."

A blank stare was the answer he got.

"...what."

"I'm not kidding."

"The hell you aren't. I'd expect this sort of thing from Jeb, but Bob?"

"I swear I'm not pulling your leg. I've got the transmission log, if you don't believe me."

"How the hell he didn't fall off the ladder during the acceleration?"

"Guess all those trips to the Mun finally toughened him up." - Gene guessed. - "Anyway. They're in orbit now and here's where the problem is."

"Not enough fuel?"

"Bang on. We've got 508 in the 909 and 33 in the ACS."

"That'd normally be enough. Orbit?"

"23 km periapse, 26 km apoapse, 74° inclination almost perfectly lined up with Kerbin. The guys are running the numbers like crazy but there's barely any lateral velocity at their current orbital position, so a retrograde escape is a no-go at this time."

"How bad?"

"2.7 million klicks. At best."

Bob paled. - "Kerp." - he swore.

"Yep. We've got about two days until the Mun's orbital position lines up for a retrograde escape..." - Gene trailed off before lowering his voice. - "...but medical says Bob's vitals are putting out some values I don't like. Jeb's holding him together for now but I'd still prefer if we got them home as quickly as possible because if Bob loses it..."

He didn't need to finish. Both knew exactly what would happen if a kerbonaut were to succumb to fear in the middle of a dangerous situation: empty coffins to be buried.

"Get me the numbers." - Bill said finally. - "I'll figure something out."

"You do that. We've never lost a single kerbonaut and we're sure as hell not gonna lose two now. Those two are counting on us and we've gotta come through."

----

Four hours later, Gene was in the middle of reaching for what he guessed was his twentieth cup of coffee that day when his field of vision was suddenly filled with a large sheet full of numbers and trajectories. Looking up, he beheld the visage of Bob leaning heavily on Gene's terminal, bloodshot eyes barely open.

Then with a shaky hand, Bob pointed at three heavily encircled parts and mumbled something unintelligible that vaguely sounded like - "Done."

Gene wordlessly gave him the coffee mug before standing up to take the sheet to the comms technician.

----

Jeb was quietly gazing at the munar surface less than thirty kilometers beyond his cramped capsule's window when the radio crackled to life. - "Explorer, Mission Control. Comm check."

"Mission Control, Explorer. Listening."

"Standby to receive maneuver data."

He watched on his monitor as the numbers came in, dimly noting that on the CCTV monitor to the side, Bob jerked awake. As the data finished transmitting, Jeb's eyebrow rose. - "Mission Control, Explorer. Transmission complete. Please confirm, burn 200 at point almost exactly opposite of Kerbin?"

"Confirmed, Explorer."

"That's barely enough to break orbit. Shouldn't it be more than that?"

"Negative, Explorer. Do not deviate from the burn target."

"Copy, Mission Control." - Jeb replied before looking over the data again. Again, he failed to see how it would help.

----

"Engine shutdown confirmed." - a technician announced.

"Margin?"

"Zero. No overburn or underburn. Jeb nailed it perfectly, to the tenth. Explorer is now on course for munar escape."

Gene made a noncommittal sound. - "That's the first bit of good news I've heard since the beginning of this kerpstorm." - He glanced to the shuttered office off to the side, from which even the windows couldn't block out the sound of Bill's snoring. - "Let's just hope he got the numbers right. Comms, transmit the second maneuver."

"Yes, sir." - A short while later, Gene heard the controller's voice through his own near-silent prayer. - "Explorer, Mission Control. Confirm maneuver: full burn at designated location."

----

"Director, we have a problem."

Gene sighed for what felt like a hundredth time. - "What now?"

"Jeb just finished the second burn, but his periapse is only 80. They're gonna be too high for an aerobreak and the 909's out of fuel."

"Damn. Call for the guys to get the T-1B ready. Even if we have to leave the data behind, we're bringing the crew back home."

"Sir, we've never done an orbital rendezvous before. And even if we had, the relative orbital velocity will be 700 m/s, giving us an intercept window of about ten minutes. There's no way we can pull that maneuver off, even if Explorer would get that far."

"What do you mean, 'get that far'?" - Gene demanded.

"They lost too much speed on the second burn. The Mun will capture them again in less than an hour."

Gene buried his face in his hands. - "You've gotta be kidding me... we've done all this for nothing?"

"Don't throw in the towel just yet, boss." - Bill quipped as he emerged from behind the technician, the darkness of the bags beneath his eyes almost looking like makeup.

"But we're back where we started and don't have any fuel left-"

"Trust me." - Bill cut Gene off with confidence. - "I know what I'm doing."

----

Gene still wasn't convinced as he started at Mission Control's main display, the trajectory line shifting to show Explorer's new orbit around the Mun.

Only, there was no apoapse indicator.

"Sir..." - a technician began with uncertainty. - "If I'm seeing this right... we're on course for a munar escape in less than an hour."

Gene's head immediately snapped towards him. - "What? How?"

"I don't know, sir. But they're at a very high altitude, I think they have escape velocity."

Gene narrowed his eye and studied the display. - "What's the projected trajectory after escape?"

"Computer's still calculating." - After nearly a minute, the technician backed away from his terminal so suddenly he nearly fell backwards with his chair. - "We've got minus fifty periapse on Kerbin!"

"What the-?! I thought we were stuck at plus eighty! How on Kerbin..." - He looked back at the board. Attentively and thoroughly, he took in every detail of every object and trajectory involved...

...and his eyes went wide at the same time as his mouth hung open. - "Oh, you have got to be kidding me... the Mun's gravity is pulling them retrograde?!"

"Yup." - Bill quipped as he appeared next to him with a cup of coffee. - "And we've still got 33 m/s in the ACS. We burn that prograde here..." - He pointed at the third mark on his orbital drawing. - "...and it's gonna raise periapse to 35 for a nice, shallow reentry."

Gene just stared at him. - "...you magnificent piece of kerp. Not only you got them home, but you still had that kind of safety margin?"

Bill shrugged with a grin. - "Just doing my job, boss."

 

 

(yes, this is the exact dramatization of what went down in my game today)

Edited February 2, 2019 by Fraktal

[Torn4dO]

7 hours ago, Zosma Procyon said:

Oh. Okay. *takes a long hard look at own life*.

What about rigid connection? Does it cause any problems?

Ehh.. got to admit that I never figured out what that does, so I never touch the rigid connection option

[MaverickSawyer]

Did a lot of stuff dirtside on Kerbin...

 

Made a new supersonic single-seat airplane, and Jeb decided that a Panther engine just wasn't enough fun...

Some of you already know where this is going, don't you.  

Yep, Jeb made a ZeLL package for the Aeris 3S. After all, those 8 Seperatrons were getting near the "Best if used by" date. What better way to dispose of them?

The first second or so is kinda sketchy... despite my best efforts, there's still a nose-down tendency. (I blame the Panther engine.) But acceleration is such that the aero surfaces take control after that point and away you go.

Flight then continued as normal, and Jeb proceeded to 15 km altitude and 900 m/s. He's quite happy with the results, and now wants to make a "road-mobile" version for... things. Airshows, I suppose.

 

Couple other birds in the nest now worth mentioning...

My new Supersonic Business Jet. Can tool along at 450 m/s and 10 km for quite some time. Might throw that into the Kerbal Express Airlines as a charter bird.

 

Good o' Herky Bird. Can't fit an Akita rover into it, which is a shame... but it's still a great transport. Excellent handling, even at low air speeds.

Took it to visit some old friends as a functional test.

 

Edited February 2, 2019 by MaverickSawyer

[DeltaDizzy]

59 minutes ago, Torn4dO said:

Ehh.. got to admit that I never figured out what that does, so I never touch the rigid connection option

It makes all part joints totally inflexible, with the unpleasant sidemeffect of makkng them very brittle. Autostrutting and/or KJR is much better.

[Xurkitree]

Today i launched probes towards Neidon, Sarnus and Ascelpius.

Its nice, not much science, but a step ahead.

Today i launched probes towards Neidon, Sarnus and Ascelpius.

Its nice, not much science, but a step ahead.

[Hotel26]

Still experimenting with fuel carriers - this one is Aquarius, using a double Mk2 cargo bay.

It's lacking in range yet, however.

Edited February 2, 2019 by Hotel26

[Eriksonn]

I was sending a resource scanner sattelite to minmus, and as usual i did a mun gravity assist for the fun of it. However this time something interesting happend: Due to manuevers believing that engine burns are instant and my ion engines being rather slow i didnt end up in the exact orbit that i wanted. After correcting for this small deviation, i noticed that my mun periapsis was only 4,6km . I quicksaved and hoped that i wouldnt hit the mun. When i was approaching my periapsis and flying only meters above the munar surface at over 800m/s i saw one of the mun arcs. That was completely unexpected and unplanned. I dont think i have ever before seen one of those myself as i have not really been that interested in them. But this was still a very happy event. (a few seconds later i literally had to retract the solar panels to avoid smacking them into the surface)

Edited February 2, 2019 by Eriksonn

[eddiew]

So after an unexpected break in which I broke a tooth and sighed over Imgur's inexplicable new UI, I finally brought the Pink Cougar's crew back to ground.

Ah yes, the Wirliwiz. Because it meets all of the demands to be a stable vehicle under KSP's aero model. Mass and lift are balanced around the central axis, the thrust torque is less than 0.5 kNm, and it flies about as well as anything else with similar wing:mass ratio. At 62 tons on launch, take off speed is a modest 110m/s, although it's better to stay shallow and not try climbing below 250. Design-wise it does have a lot more intakes than it needs, and a mk2 has already been proposed to smooth out the nacelles at the front end. Because aesthetics matters, obviously.

Having rescued Sakura from Otho orbit, there are now one more kerbals aboard Pink Cougar than can fit in the command pod, so Yuki - now known for her love of daring EVA hijinx - heads over alone to take up the second seat in the pilot's cabin. 

Transferring the command pod between Pink Cougar and Wirliwiz is a little fiddly, requiring cooperation from all pilots and having little margin for error, but with only a few scuffs and scrapes the docking ports lock on and the pod is fixed in place.

If Wirliwiz has one problem, it's that it is quite hard to stop after re-entry. The angled wing surfaces mean it doesn't like to lose altitude, and the pitch control is adequate, but not generous, leading to a wide turning circle. Nonetheless, there's plenty of fuel left on board - in fact most of the nosecone is still full - and it's easy enough to bring her in for a retrograde landing. Which only bounced three times before coming to a rest. Although one of them was on the grass before the runway, since someone slightly misjudged the rate of descent and minimum flight speeds.

And there we have it. Returned a vessel from Otho, Jannah, Hephaestus and Augustus. I think I will try to use this technique for future multi-body explorations, since it saves dragging redundant crew capsules around. 

Sadly it did not fulfil criteria for rendezvousing vessels in orbit, because I launched the pod atop the main expedition assemblage. Next time I will send the pod to meet the rest in LGO and see if KSP actually tracks the fact that they are separate launches over the duration of the mission.

 

[Daveroski]

Today I designed an SSTO miner. I deliberately avoided using Mk2 Parts.

Bill,Bob and Jeb took it for a test flight to Mimnus.

As bill was needed at Duna Station and the pilot there needed rotating. They all went off to Duna, Jeb changed places with the pilot and Bill went with him. The pilot and Bob returned back to Kerbin.

 

This is the craft just as it was leaving for Mimnus. More pics on request.

D.

 

[Martian Emigrant]

Hey there.

 

The last few days been playing my 1.6 career. Mobile lab science research isn't allowed. So biomes are a definite  option.

Went "Sploring" the Mun's north poles.

 

Spoiler

 

 

Landed a contracted Mobile-Mobile-Lab on the Mun

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

Sent 3 intrepid Kerbonauts to Duna because....Science. Bob did a big navy salute.

 

 

 

Spoiler

 

Aerobraked in Kerbin's atmosphere.

 

 

And got paid.

 

 

 

 

 

ME