What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Cavscout74]

I got a few launches in for the upcoming Duna transfer in my career.  Due to improvements in the launch industry, build times have dropped to mostly be in the 10-20 day range - they were running 20-30 days or more for the first few Duna craft.   As a result, I will definitely be able to get all my desired craft launched before the window.  There is a Jool window roughly the same time and I expect to be able to get a few craft launched for Jool as well due to the build time reductions. 

First up was the Duna Express transfer stage.  The crew section will launch separately when the Duna window is opening and dock with the transfer stage, and will be just living quarters, 'chutes, heatshield & small engines for maneuvering & docking.  This set up will allow me to complete the "and return to Kerbin" portion of exploration contracts without having to burn up a nuclear engine in Kerbin's atmosphere.  I know there are no game effects, but I still avoid it whenever possible. 

Next came a Duna outpost.  It's a little cramped - especially for long stays - but it provides quarters, limited snack production and a minimal ISRU capability on Duna's surface.

There was also a Duna rover that I didn't grab screenshots of.  The last launch was only headed for Minmus, but it was a test of the satellite bus for a potential Laythe mission.  Ok, really I was bored building another contract satellite to send to Minmus, so I built the Probe Plus mod "Meridani" probe which is that mod's version of Cassini.  It does give Minmus a phenomenal relay in polar orbit.   I didn't add the Draco (aka Huygens) lander for what should be obvious reasons

[Pipcard]

Y52, D215 - Sarnus Rabbit 2 leaves Tekto (Outer Planets Mod)

The upper stage returns to the Negi Maru in orbit

The Negi Maru goes to a 390-km orbit, making it look like the flag of a certain country in another universe

Y52, D219 - Transfer burn from Tekto (and the Sarnus system) to Kerbin

[Guest]

New Duna lander under development. 

The airframe is very, very sweet, really nice handling and can touch down at ca 25 m/s even without the STOL assist (on Kerbin). I've made a few variants. I think the one I'll eventually send to Duna is like that one except that it swaps out the long cargo bay for a short one and a crew module for a crew capacity of 5 + a full science pack, like in the variant below.

I also tried turning it into a Kerbin SSTO. It works, but only barely. It might be good for Laythe however, if and when I get that far. The latest version swaps out the small nose cone for a Docking Port Jr. and adds RCS.

[Zedwardson]

Got back into the saddle, and did the "Zulu" tests which were suborbital tests using Jeb to remind myself how to play.  

Now it time for a attempt at a orbital flight.

[Kchinger]

On 10/8/2019 at 2:21 AM, PT said:

YARLY!

However, you need to accept contract first. So no preview of chocolate until purchase. 

As my current carrer os based on ISRU and EL, Engineers are most wanted chockos currently  

You can make EVA transfer much easier if you target your craft (just double click it). You'll get relative velocity and approach vector displayed on NavBall, just like with docking. 

Very helpful, thank you. 

[DoctorDavinci]

 

 

[Guest]

I'm developing a scaled-down version of the MIKS interplanetary shuttle system for use in my career game. My crew rotations usually only number 4 (2 pilots, scientist, engineer) so I have no need for something with that kind of capacity. I will use the same system to deliver the yet-to-be-named Duna lander/plane to DST-1. Also, everything crewed, no probe cores, as per my self-imposed career restrictions.

This is the payload module docked to the Kerbin orbital delivery module. The pair will make orbit with the payload module's Lf capacity topped up.

And here's how the combination will look when the Kerbin orbital delivery module has been switched out for the interplanetary tug module, and the Duna plane is docked to the nose. Not quite identical as I obviously had to swap out the shielded docking ports for regular ones for this design phase.

[RizzoTheRat]

Not played for a couple of weeks and have just spent flipping ages trying to work out why my calculation of the phase angle to get to Duna on my KOS powered interplanetary mission was coming out wrong. I know it's about 44 degrees but kept coming up with over 50...Eventually realised I'd forgotten to account for the radius of the sun...oops

I then set set up some code to warp the transfer window and it kept overshooting.  Spent ages checking my calculations and trying to work out what I was doing wrong...before realising Duna isn't in a circular orbit, there's about a 10% difference in it's maximum and minimum speeds, so rather than a simple calculation I need to either do some integration or go for the easy option and warp until I'm a degree or so from the required phase angle.

In the mean time this is parked in orbit, with 3 RemoteTech Kommsats and a ScanSat survey satellite on board, waiting for me to figure out the maths.

 

 

[Guest]

Yeaah, the shuttle system works a treat. Tested it by doing some crew rotation. I'm mothballing MINIST-1 largely because Minmus is pretty much all Sci-ed out, so from now on it's a training base only, with a lone scientist left there to gnaw through the data in the science lab. "Peter Kerman" however is overstaffed so I went and fetched the extra crew home. I'm planning to go to Jool next, once I open up Experimental Electrics for the RTGs, and will need the kerbonauts.

Just a couple small tweaks needed: I had forgotten to disable pitch, yaw, roll on the RCS, and add an action group for toggling mode on the RAPIERs. I also misjudged my return corridor and fell a bit short of KSC, and had to do a bush landing, which went fine. The tug module remains in orbit, fully fuelled and waiting for another job.  

¨'

[Zarkov2]

Today I finally got an Eve return mission completed. It took some degree of F9 abuse, but at least I managed to reach orbit on the first (non-catastrophic) launch from Eve.

I had to take off with the heat shields inflated so that they could be deflated before being detached (otherwise explosions).

https://imgur.com/3FM5PB9

It took a lot of iterations of basically everything to get it done. Without HyperEdit during testing I don't think I would have made it. Crazy difficult compared to other things I've done in the game so far.

https://imgur.com/a/wdMDpRS

[Zedwardson]

1 hour ago, Brikoleur said:

 

 

 

I really like this small shuttle and how simple it is.  In my current game a goal is to get a working shuttle system working.

 

[Guest]

21 minutes ago, Zedwardson said:

I really like this small shuttle and how simple it is.  In my current game a goal is to get a working shuttle system working.

Thanks! It’s not the prettiest but it works and is easy and convenient to operate.

[TheKSPBeginner]

For some reason, the Astronaut Complex audio continued into the space center view.

[PT]

I upgraded my Aptur Yard to new version. As you can see in background, first attempt was not successful.

Once all was set up for construction, I deployed an autonomous interplanetary cruiser. To deal with limitation of KSP (part count lag, wobble, Kraken) I decided to deploy its payload with EL, most of it will be assembled on the way.

Cruiser is designed to reach Laythe and its moon and hopefully return back to Sonnah for reuse. Despite being a space whale it managed to take off from Aptur 0.1g with full load of parts for payload, however I'll need to not only refuel ~20k LF of its nukes but its Lf/Ox boosters as they are actually meant to be fuel tanks for payload

Manticore Autonomous Booster delivered required fuel and is ready for return for tanking. Predecessor to MAB was Behemoth class AB, which displayed tendency to obliterate everything in its vicinity upon launch so a bit of moderation was deemed to be in order

Sadly celestial bodies did not align well, so forceful transfer burning 5k m/s, out of 8k, had to be used,

50 days to first burn, 390 until circularization. Then few dozen more to perform some science.

Edited October 12, 2019 by PT

[AHHans]

8 hours ago, Brikoleur said:

And here's how the combination will look when the Kerbin orbital delivery module has been switched out for the interplanetary tug module, and the Duna plane is docked to the nose. Not quite identical as I obviously had to swap out the shielded docking ports for regular ones for this design phase.

Hmmm... That looks at the same time very different  and very similar to my combination of the Duna Glider docked to the Interplanetary Transfer Shuttle, which are currently in transit to Duna:

There is actually some backstory to this: originally I had planned to send the Duna Glider with its crew but otherwise alone from Kerbin to Duna. But then it occurred to me that while the Duna Glider has enough space that the crew should manage to keep the cabin fever in check, after several month in micro-gravity the crew would need some time of convalescence before it could start work on Duna. Then I planned to send the Duna Glider without crew to Duna and have the crew follow in the IPT Shuttle. But shortly after undocking the glider from my gateway station in Kerbin orbit I remembered that while the glider has a probe core, it was designed to operate with crew so It doesn't have an antenna that allows communication over interplanetary distances. So Harbert Kerman needed to step outside the station and run (well, jetpack) after his ride. The next problem was that coupled together the combined craft is not very balanced, so that acceleration would be a serious pain. What I did was first send the glider on its way to Duna, and the follow with the IPT Shuttle and rendezvous in deep space. Well, now the crew can enjoy the relative comfort - and especially the centrifugal gravity - of the IPT Shuttle while they wait for their arrival on Duna.

On another note, yesterday I finalized a contract to safely land an asteroid on Kerbin:

The KSC administration was not amused, in particular the head of the legal department complained about having to walk to the runway in order to catch his "adequate mode of transportation" - as he likes to call them. But this time it wasn't Jeb who played a practical joke on the administration, but Gene from mission control directed  the asteroid to it target. (He claims he only aimed for "close to the KSC" and that this kind of reentry cannot be aimed with pinpoint precision anyhow. But there is a suspiciously high consumption of monopropellant during the last minute or so of the descent.)

Unfortunately there were an uncomfortable number of temporary reality failures at the KSC (also known as program crashes), so Jeb was asked to park his flying rock outside of reality creation range from the runway and the launchpad to ease the load on the reality generation engine. And to avoid cumulative  vessel distortion of the robotic parts from repeated reality creation and disassembly cycles. So the flying rock is now parked 3 km to the south of the KSC. Jeb didn't complain too much, he needs to use a rover anyhow to get to the height where he can reach the control seat of his contraption. But I miss the additional ornament on the KSC.

Edited October 12, 2019 by AHHans

[Guest]

Finally got back to working on my Firespitter Extended mod

[PT]

I managed to squeeze in second session today, so I continued my misadventures with Aptur Yard....

Damn abomination started slipping and didn't want to stop, so I let it slide at physics x4 warp and it arrived to almost flat spot on its own. Yay, I guess. Building stuff on top of it, however, was still a dangerous process. After some reading I decided to use some sticks and a hammer.

new construction finallyr has been deployed in stable parking spot, quite different from previous mess. Fuel transfer, however, turned to be a bit problematic as KAS/KIS changed since last time I used it so I made quite a mess before getting hang of it...

Bob happily connected fuel line among remnants of two utility rovers sacrificed for engineering progress.

Despite minor setbacks an upgraded version of my previous space whale, an Apollo B class autonomous space cruiser, has been successfully launched in preparations for upcoming transfer window.

Now I just need to clean up this mess...

[Hotel26]

11 hours ago, Brikoleur said:

the shuttle system

Really admire the forward-swept wings guessing they are to get the CoL precisely where you wanted...

[Guest]

4 hours ago, Hotel26 said:

Really admire the forward-swept wings guessing they are to get the CoL precisely where you wanted...

Yep, correct. I used a “trident” design for the bigger version but this solution works at this scale and it’s simpler.

[Zedwardson]

 

 

 

Promised that I was just going to do a quick test.

 

a few hours later I made a successful shuttle to test my future heavy lift - Proton style rocket that will be used to lift heavy stuff to orbit.  First shuttle ever, even if it just lugged to Knauts into orbit and production shuttles will most likely have a different wing formation and hopefully some useful payload/crew lift. 

[NHunter]

The manned part of my Nero expedition has finally arrived:

Also a beauty shot of Nero's night side:

[RizzoTheRat]

MY CREATION!  IT WORKS!  

 

I've been trying to set up my first KOS powered mission to Duna, and of course all the maths is relatively simple for circular orbits, but starts to go horribly wrong for eccentric orbits.

I've finally managed to do it by using KOS's orbital path predictions to work out where Duna will be when I get to it's orbital altitude, and therefore when I need to leave Kerbin orbit.  I'd never really thought about it before but the usually quoted 44 degree phase angle for Duna is an average, and varies by quite a bit depending on Duna's altitude at the time.  according to my calcs the optimum phase angle for this particular window is 36.72 degrees.

I've then had the script warp to one orbit before the optimal position, calculate the required velocity and departure angle, and then add a manoeuvre node.  The manoeuvre node is just a temporary check to ensure the maths is right, I won't be using it for the burn, and I already had all the hyperbolic excess velocity etc code from my Mun return script.

At the moment the timing is bang on but the dV is coming out about 30m/3 high and I haven't figured out why yet.  I've changed the dV manually to get the intercept and prove it works, so it still needs a bit of tweaking, but it will work as I will cut the engines when it gets an intercept anyway.

So the screenshot might not look like much,  but everything to get here was automated with the exception of pulling the dV down a bit to get the intercept.

 

 

 

[Zeiss Ikon]

(1.6.1 RSS/RO/RP-1)

I've reached that point in the career where sounding rocket contracts no longer pay enough to continue developing the larger and more expensive rockets required to launch heavier and heavier payloads to higher and higher altitudes (or farther and farther downrange).  It's time for heroes to step up.

Fortunately, I was wrong about Jeb, Val, Bill and Bob retiring.  Apparently they don't retire in "Easy" settings.  That's good, I'd have hated to try to hire a new astronaut on the budget I had available.

Speaking of budget, this looks like an old 1.5m sounding rocket with a cockpit added.

That's because it is an OLD sounding rocket with a cockpit added.  Specifically, it uses the A-4 engine, the oldest and best-researched large engine in the inventory.  A cockpit with a pilot is a pretty light payload, and this old booster is perfectly adequate to send it far higher than we need to go at this point.

Everything possible, within the available technology, has been done to ensure the pilot's safety; the entire cockpit decouples from the booster, and can do so under boost any time before the last few seconds of thrust (when the acceleration climbs above what the separation motors can provide).  The single small motor on the side ensures that an abort clears the booster, which would otherwise overhaul the cockpit because of its much higher sectional density.  The entire cockpit is lowered to the sea or land with a redundant parachute system -- either parachute can provide a safe descent rate (though pilot comfort on landing is much improved if both are fully deployed).

The cockpit has independent RCS control with 100 liters of HTP for the thrusters (far more than the most profligate pilot can reasonably expend during a suborbital flight).  The intent was to reenter base first, to decelerate faster and limit heating (uncomfortable for the pilot, but safe as long as the time at high G loads is limited) -- however, without base ballast, the conical shape is point-first stable at high speeds and the RCS doesn't have enough authority to override aerodynamic forces.  This gives the pilot an excellent view of the reentry, if rather uncomfortable as he/she hangs from the safety harness during the high G loads.  The next version will incorporate appr. 170 kg of lead ballast in the base, which will allow base-first reentry as well as potentially acting as a sacrificial heat sink/shield.  Thrusters have also been added to allow greater use of the HTP propellant to slightly reduce velocity and lighten the craft.  R&D is working on better solutions for reentry heating, but it'll be years before they bear fruit.

And here's the next step.  A significantly upgraded booster engine (RD-103) and a modest second stage (2x AJ10-27).  This has more than half the delta-V required to reach orbit, and is intended to verify the capsule's ability to reenter at higher speeds and shallower angles.  Replacing the capsule with a sounding payload will permit fulfilling some contracts that required much larger rockets.

Unfortunately, this vessel or an earlier prototype seems to have triggered a bug in my install -- I attempted to use the S2.253 engine (a copy of the one from the Wasserfall anti-aircraft missile -- like a miniature A-4 with tiny wings -- converted to burn kerosene and nitric acid) for a second stage, and every time I'd get the engine mounted to a tank and centered, it became invisible.  A new engine from the parts bin would show its Test Flight tag (but not the engine itself) as I drag it around the VAB, but i could neither see nor click the installed engine.  This was 100% reproducible, simply by selecting and installing one of these engines (quitting to main menu and reloading the saved game would temporarily bring back the model).  After several iterations of this, trying to see if there was a way to work around the bug, the lights went out in the VAB -- clicking "new" and then leaving and reentering the VAB would let me see the bay and out the door to the launch pad, but as soon as I'd load that craft, the view would go black (UI visible, but not the construction bay).  I abandoned that engine, built the Tricycle Blk. 2 with AJ10-27 engines for the second stage, and all seemed well -- until I tried to do a KRASH sim launch.

Then the sun went out.  The launch pad with UI would load, but with everything dark.  I could see Val in the pilot view window, barely, and mousing over would highlight parts of the rocket, but the view itself was as dark as the blackest night (darker -- no stars in the sky).  Nor could I launch anyway; I couldn't activate SAS nor throttle up, and staging would not function.

That was where I stopped for the evening.  Hopefully, a full game close and restart will have fixed this; otherwise, I'll have to salvage my craft files and start a new career...

Edit: the bug(s) must have just been due to having the game open too long; after a shutdown for the night and reopening the next day, not only were the lights back on, the S2.253 engine would install and, at least within the VAB, function correctly.

Edited October 14, 2019 by Zeiss Ikon

[Guest]

BAK will go to Jool.

The mission will consist of two craft which will travel to Jool separately: Minnow and Orca as one craft, and Alexei Leonov with a TANTOR class tanker and a lander as another. Both craft will be assembled in LKO and refueled from Peter Kerman in Munar orbit. They will depart for Jool from the orbit of Mun by slingshotting around Kerbin. Upon arrival they will gravity brake off Tylo to park themselves in orbit around Laythe and Vall respectively.

Alexei Leonov will survey Vall, and with help from its lander, select a mining spot. TANTOR-AL1 will then fill up its ore tanks and return to the station. 

In the meantime, Minnow will decouple from Orca to make a surface excursion to Laythe. She will then return to Orca. They will then refuel from Alexei Leonov; the details of this manoeuvre have not yet been planned and depend on the fuel reserves left on Minnow/Orca. 

Development of this phase of the Brikoleur Space Program has not been entirely without incident. When testing a prototype of Minnow that proved to be dynamically unstable, Capt. Valentina Kerman got into an unrecoverable flat spin and had to bail out. The prototype was lost but Capt. Kerman was unharmed. She thought it was rather exciting really.

The first attempted launch of Orca had to be aborted, because due to a miscommunication the internal tank on the payload module had not been filled with oxidant, needed to make orbit. Capt. Kerman only noticed this oversight when she was about 200 m/s short of making orbit. She made a successful re-entry and flew Orca back to KSC -- there was plenty of liquid fuel for that. Only loss was Capt. Kerman's wages and the fuel; Orca itself was returned intact and, after proper refueling, Capt. Kerman made a successful launch.

Capt. Kerman returning to KSC following an aborted launch of the Orca.

 

Minnow. The airframe was able to make orbit -- just -- with a single RAPIER, but we wanted to retain the docking port at the tail and had to go with a twin-pod design, making her deliciously overpowered. She packs a lot of features into that lithe frame -- passenger seats for four, with one crew, a full set of science experiments, powerful RCS, sufficient reaction wheels, and a RTG for reliable electrical power far from the Sun.

Minnow/Orca.

Minnow and Orca  have been launched and are fully fueled and waiting for the launch window on Peter Kerman. Busy times on the station!

 

[MiscelanousItem]

I stated a new career, trying to focus on spaceplanes:

The Tasman-2:

Meant to be a TSTO (Two Stage To Orbit) however the Wheesleys lose thrust way to fast for it to effective Will adding intakes help with that?