What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Klingon Admiral]

I aparrently channeled Danny:

[BJ Quest]

Further Aircraft development of the Chickadee 2 (now 2b). Take offs, landings and emergency parachute descents are well balanced. Night shot of the plane: http://imgur.com/lSl7h0f

Had the thought ( and possible challenge) of building a minimal (parts?, Size?, Weight?, Etc.) aircraft to collect the most science point on (?) kerbin that is possible. If so challenged This would be my entry:

With the new engine (R.A.P.I.E.R.) that would put a possible interesting twist to collecting science on(and around??) Kerbin.

The Chickadee 2sci fly's and responds just a nice as the normal 2b version.

The Chickadee 2b with drop tanks - It Actually works well and clears the runway on take off.

http://imgur.com/28zTTle Headed for the Island airport and dropped the tanks. Missed the runway. A bit short.

Went back and modified the basic Chickadee. Tried drop tanks which worked well. Tried 2 sets of drop tanks. If one could get the craft off the ground in one piece then a long flight is possible. Went 1/2 way around Kerbin west to east (1 1/2 hour). A polar flight should be possible if one could land safely the plane with 1 set of drop tanks attached. A future test flight will determine that. The plane pitches down with 2 sets of tanks on it needing constant attention to keep it up in the air. Minor adjustments needed periodically with one an no sets of tanks on it. Not bad for a small aircraft.

Edited January 8, 2014 by BJ Quest
Drop Tanks x2

[draeath]

I tried career mode last night. My first orbiter worked - but I made an error considering delta-V to deorbit and decoupled my engine... with my periapsis 2km outside of the atmosphere. Oops!

I got out and pushed, and managed to get it into the atmosphere. 5 orbits later, I was successfully splashed down.

I should mention that I had Ferram Aerospace, Deadly Reentry Continued, and Ioncross Life Support installed. That was a... fun recovery.

[lajoswinkler]

Rescued Bill and Jeb from a solar orbit after they tried to return from Gilly.

Solar orbit rendezvous is very delicate and, contrary to the myth, it doesn't require absurd amounts of fuel, just very delicate planning and lots of time.

In the end I've managed to actually impact their stranded ship and break all of the solar panels on the fueled probe-tug that went after them.

[Duke23]

The shakedown cruise of the KSS Storm went better than expected. It went to the Mun under full working load and established rough equatorial orbit then dropped the lander onto a spot I thought I hadn't been yet. Turns out that I had, and I had some extra fuel (in the Storm, not the lander) so I made a rendezvous and refilled the lander's tanks then took the whole thing to an orbit maybe 20 degrees off the poles. I was then able to set the lander down in a nice big crater that I knew for sure I hadn't been to, and make the trip worthwhile by bringing home some science. Good thing I remembered to get the data back to the cockpit via EVA because I spent too much time on the surface playing around with the lander and had to jettison the main tanks and go to the "oh crap" stage, which didn't have RCS. So it's a good thing I took the docking bot with me because I had to retrieve the command pod and bring it back to the Storm. The return trip was uneventful and I got home with fuel to spare, which was expected since it's really supposed to be an interplanetary ship. Mission pictures:

Nice view of Kerbin from here:

However, the cruise did reveal some flaws and some things I just probably should have done differently. So now I have it's successor which hasn't been properly named yet (it's operating under the name KSS Storm MK II at the moment). Its core went up in one piece and weighs in at just over 70 tons which as it turns out is right around where my current lifter maxes out with a couple modifications to accommodate the new ship's long engines, and I had to burn the nukes a bit to finish circularizing. The main differences in this ship are removal of one large fuel tank (just plain not needed for what I'm using it for at the moment), a hitchhiker container, and better looks IMO. Its maiden voyage will be to bring a tractor rover to the Mun to be dropped for my future base there. It was also supposed to take the first two base modules as well, a hitchhiker and a fuel tank for the rover that can be seen in the background, but due to technical oversights on the size of docking port used on the side tanks it will have to come back for them and tow them like the rover instead.

Ready for action

As you can see from the picture above (if you remember my others, at least) there was a slight mishap at my tanker station. I was time warping with debris nearby and when I stopped warp a large fuel tank had transposed itself into one of the tanks on the station and when I stopped warp... Kablewy. 2 solar arrays were ripped off, the hitchhiker containers I had recently brought up got flung out to who knows where. Thankfully that section was unmanned and nothing "too important" was harmed. Actually, it's the same tank you can see floating in the background of this next pic from when it was all still intact.

Rover being grabbed

[Superfluous J]

I got to mun in under 5 hours with under 600 units of fuel, and had enough fuel to get back.

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[briansun1]

made a working ssto for the first time...

[MaverickSawyer]

Running a rocket to orbit... BY HAND... and making a fairly smooth orbit with only 4140 m/s dV. That is my lowest dV launch EVER. And I did it by HAND. Now, the question is, how do I get MechJeb to do the same thing?

[0muffins0]

I put a space telescope into a 200km orbit around Kerbin today.

I-Spy Sat 1

Kerbal telescope technology amounts to putting your face right up against the window and squinting very, very hard.

The Sun and Minmus.

Mun

Second KSC location. It's just a few pixels even when fully zoomed in. They need to develop better squinting technology.

[Sirine]

For so many updates....Finally, able to visit the desert temple up close.

[Duke23]

Because I'm a genius, I flew all the way to the Mun and undocked the lander / rover only to realize two of the engines on the lander were pointed at wheels on the rover so it was impossible to land. I called it a day and redocked to the main ship and headed home. When I got there I ditched the lander and sent up a new and "improved" one, which won't fit onto the main ship the way I wanted it to. But it's okay, I'll make it work. I did manage to get the Mun base modules docked to the ship this time, on the side ports. I couldn't do it before because they were too heavy for my docking bot but I was able to do it with the lander. Currently on the way back to try this again and hope my lander's engines are powerful enough to bring down 5t of module each trip. On the negative side of things, there is absolutely no way this ship is going outside Kerbin's SOI, at least not with anything attached to it. I had about 2500 DV when I left LKO, which is down significantly from its unloaded DV obviously. But why would I take it somewhere without loads of useless stuff? Also I'm starting to learn why some people love MechJeb so much. If I had to actually pay attention through this 6 minute burn just to go to the Mun, I might lose my mind.

[zeppelinmage]

I finished my space station.

[Duke23]

^Wow, that's really cool. I bet your CPU hates you lol... That actually gives me a couple ideas, not that I'm going to rip it off or anything. Just that my next station is going to be a little less "discarded ship pieces parked in orbit" and more station.

I just had a mishap with my Mun base project. Either I overestimated the capabilities of my lander or I underestimated the weight of the hitchhiker container setup I was bringing down (the more likely case)... Actually I just checked the weights after I wrote that and this makes no sense to me at all. I got the rover down with no issues and didn't expect any (1.3t). Got the 360 unit fuel tank down alright (5.1t, this is the one I was worried about). Then I go to bring down the living quarters (4.6t) and everything is going fine until the last, I dunno, 50m? It was so close but it was like the Mun just decided to suck the whole ship down at the last second and I couldn't overpower the gravity for some reason. Hit the ground somewhere around 20-30m/s at full throttle, after being at ~5m/s just seconds earlier. Kirbus, the pilot, survived with only minor damage to his lander but Kurt was in the hitchhiker container which vaporized on impact. The only way I can even rationalize this is if Kurt weighed about a ton. I did the exact same thing each time: Drop off, rendezvous with transfer ship and top off the tanks, head back. I can't even blame the Kraken for this one, I thought it was a glitch so I tried again two more times with similar results and then just accepted it. I guess Jeb will head back in the orbiting ship and break the news to everyone in person.

Edited January 8, 2014 by Duke23

[Sgt. Cookie]

Finally got enough infrastructure on the Mun to start producing rocket parts there. Sadly, they're not doing much yet. *Sigh*, gotta launch another orbital dock into Munar orbit and figure out a good shipping method.

[capi3101]

Resolved the issues I was having with the Auk I spaceplane (namely getting it to take off before it reached the end of the runway). Landed it at the KSC runway successfully - first landing coming in from the ocean (overshot the runway on entry); overall a successful flight.

Decided to use my new-found spaceplane knowledge to try and build a seven Kerbal shuttle, the mighty Auk II. That one...well, let's just say I think I need to start a little smaller. Actually, it took off (had an annoying problem with tail strikes) and did well up to about 16,000, where I discovered that I hadn't added enough intakes. Eject system never worked properly - at least not well enough to save the entire crew had I'd actually flown it manned.

[Liowen]

Running a rocket to orbit... BY HAND... and making a fairly smooth orbit with only 4140 m/s dV. That is my lowest dV launch EVER. And I did it by HAND. Now, the question is, how do I get MechJeb to do the same thing?

I do not believe Mechjeb does things "efficiently", but rather it does them good enough to get you there. That has been my experience with it anyhow, and to be honest I only use it to as a tool to learn from and not as an autopilot.

[MrZayas1]

Today, I am setting up a space station to orbit around the mun, at which point i will send up about 4 landers to rendezvous with it, refuel, and land on the moon, collect data, fly back up to rendezvous, and then send the data (via space lab) and return the rest of the samples back to kerbin. Sounds pretty complicated but i am just having problems getting enough delta V to get the station up there, i think i will probable build it modularly so i can make it in space rather than send it all up at once.

[oggylt]

I invented (well.., I never saw them i bet someone already did that) my own launch claps, since engines kept breaking off, So i am proud of this one

[Zimmy99]

Added the pod from the habitat pack to my minmus space station . The idea is to connect the inflatable hab unit and the centrifugal to the top. Though am starting to experience crashes to desktops due to memory issues. Will have to look into that soon.

Habitat pack http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/64442-Habitat-Pack

[Sufficient Anonymity]

Continued playing around with my shuttle in sandbox (there's four more images at the end of this album)

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In career mode I decided to put together a new launcher/satellite system and a research jet to squeeze a little more science out of the Kerbin system.

[eyewall]

Made it to Minmus, orbited, and safely landed 3 Kerbals before bringing them back home.

[Duke23]

Take 2 with the Storm MK II's Mun Base project and a redesigned for the third time lander, this time with moar thrust. The Storm is carrying the living quarters on the side and a Comm dish setup behind the lander. Figure I'll take that first since its light to make sure this lander isn't going to go all derpy on me.

Edit: Finally some success! I found out the living quarters were unbalanced which apparently didn't make much difference until I was closer to the Mun. So I quickly redesigned it and sent it out on a one-way transfer probe PLUS a slightly redesigned "Mun Dropper" with extra torque for those larger slightly unbalanced modules. This one went down so smoothly I thought something was wrong. So now I have two almost identical sky cranes at the Mun, one on the surface (at the moment) and one docked to the Storm in orbit. If I have enough fuel left over I'm gonna just leave one there, probably the less controllable one since it would only be used to escape to a transfer ship.

Docking this crap together was easier than it was on Kerbin. Since the gravity is so low the magnets on the docking ports pull the tractor off the ground stable but not quite docked where I can rotate it because it's so slippery up there I can never approach straight. Then just a slight thrust from the side mounted engines and it's docked and ready to go flip over wherever I need it to go. Unfortunately at the time it was built I didn't need to transport any Kerbals so I didn't think to put any seats on it just like I didn't put any freaking lights on either of the sky cranes. So I will probably be sending a new and more fun rover for the dudes stationed at the base.

Edited January 9, 2014 by Duke23

[Vanamonde]

My first probe to another planet in .23 took a bad bounce upon touchdown.

It knocked off more than half the solar panels, but none of the working parts were damaged, so all that did was slow transmission rates. 720 science.

[maccollo]

I designed a rocket that is optimized to take the m1-2 pod to Eeloo and back, and then I did just that.

Here's the whole trip compressed into 1 minute and 30 seconds

[Klingon Admiral]

I did attach the last module to my space station. Then I noticed that the rocket which brought it up there had no way to deorbit itself. Revert to VAB, alt f4.