What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Jon Tash]

Here is my space station KSST-Konstructor I capable of building stuff in orbit of Kerbin if it has the ressources. I decided to move the orbit and be farther away from Kerbin, for the moment only at 500km or so.

KSST-Konstructor I

 

[Geonovast]

Started a new Science save, and semi-accidentally landed on the VAB on my first launch.

 

I've actually never been up there before.

[Whisky Tango Foxtrot]

I was able to rescue my Laythe station and SSTO (which I'd left in orbit around Jool after realizing that I didn't have enough fuel to capture at Pol.)

I've already refuelled it at Foothold Station and sent it on its way to Laythe.

[Zeiss Ikon]

9 hours ago, Laie said:

Trying to recover the first stage of a Ferry Rocket:

Would anyone happen to know an alternative?

I can see two immediate possibilities -- delay ignition of the Landertrons a fraction, so they stop the stage closer to the sea surface (ideally, in the range between +2 and -2 m), or install additional conventional parachutes (large, and in large numbers) with a low opening altitude, to bring the descent velocity down to ~5 m/s.

I see difficulty in timing Landertron operation closely enough to get an acceptable impact velocity (a 5 m drop will give ~10 m/s, which is enough to destroy a lot of hardware), and even if you have an event timer to cut the 160 t of steel parachutes when the conventional parachutes deploy, the remaining 440 t is going to require a ridiculous crop of parachutes.

Could you install a sacrificial part, such as an inflatable heat shield, to take up the sea surface impact after your Landertron operation?

[scottadges]

What did I do in KSP? Tried to get into KSP.

I'm finally updating to 1.3.1 along with re-installing my mods... and of course I'm getting crashes to desktop.

I posted a question in the help section. Hopefully someone here can assist me as well?

 

Edited November 6, 2017 by scottadges

[Zeiss Ikon]

7 hours ago, Jeb, The Lonely Kerbonaut said:

I made some tests for my first Jool mission. I put the transfer stage with the main ship in orbit using the cheats, and i made a Homman transfer to Jool, a mid-course maneuver to get a Tylo encounter, and a correction maneuver to use the Tylo encounter to put me in orbit of Jool. The maneuver was a sucess, i passed very close to Tylo (13 Km) and very fast (5.5 Km/s), but without problems. I entered in orbit of Jool, went to the Tracking Station, and i warped until a another Tylo encounter appear. But i warped too fast, and i don't knew that the encounter would put me in a escape trajectory of Jool. When i see, it was too late. So i lost the ship. But the mission was a sucess to go to Jool. Now i just need a lifter to put the transfer stage with the main ship in orbit. Anybody here have a lifter that put about 30 tons to LKO?

I learned some time ago that a Twin Boar with an additional orange tank has plenty of thrust and dV to put 15 t (plus a smidgen) into LKO with a single stage.  Put two of those together, and the result ought to lift 30 t without difficulty (as long as you don't add too much mass joining the two boosters together side by side -- just sticking them together ought to do).  In fact, use three of these, just stuck together, adapters and nose cones on the outer two and suitable mounting hardware on the middle one; then you'll get your 30 t into orbit with significant reserve.  No reason to overthink things or fool with trying to adapt 2-to-1 (and have the adapter cut into your 30 t transfer/payload stage mass).

 

[Angelo Kerman]

I finished the Estonian's EDL Tank:

I also started working on the EDL Frame:

The EDL Frame will have storage boxes and landing gear that surround the central tank.

[Zeiss Ikon]

Today, I finished bringing Val, Bob, and Adeny's clone back from their aborted Munar landing attempt.

When Val had the apoapsis down to around 300 km (after a total of five aerobraking passes between 56.9 km and 57.6 km periapsis), she reentered at aerobraking altitude, but pointed retrograde and burned the remaining Lf/O to reduce final reentry velocity (the fuel remaining, with none burned since Munar escape, amounted to appr. 400 m/s dV, or almost exactly half what would have been needed to brake to landing and return to Munar orbit, after accounting for what was burned recovering from the suborbital landing trajectory).  That burn only partially recharged the vessel's (nearly depleted) batteries, but the monopropellant tanks were nearly full, so Val used RCS pretty freely to manage angle of attack through the hotter part of descent.

In the end, final descent was over highlands, so Val opted to deploy the parachutes even with landing gear down, rather than risk rough ground causing a crash.  Final descent under parachute, with slight cushioning from RCS, gave a fairly gentle impact of 4.9 m/s.

Another 400 units of Lf/O would have given barely enough dV to accomplish the landing and return with this vessel, and suggestions for drop tanks, a further stretch, and other less sensible plans were flying before Val had even dropped below orbital velocity.  In addition to Mission Planning, R&D announced they were accepting recommendations for immediate future research.

[NotJebediah]

Today was a busy day at the KSC...

I've finished a prototype of an orbital dropship, desinged and launced a mining rig to my Minmus base, and played around in the hangar trying out different designs... 

Insired by an another space-faring bird

Breaking the egg...

... and standing proudly (Praise the sun! \[T]/ )

[LordFerret]

Today the Duna-Phoenix did its intercept burn. The Phoenix lander is mounted on the transfer vehicle Apollo style (backwards). Having been busy managing other missions, when I came back to the Phoenix the control was active on the lander (not on the transfer vehicle)... 2 minutes into the intercept burn I realized something wasn't right - I was burning retrograde. Lucky for me I had plenty of fuel to spare.

I humbly accept the Dummy Of The Day award.

[Space Kadet]

i made a TINY vtol

 

[Delay]

So, I have built a lifter stage for my Duna and Ike probes. Turns out, it's an SSTO, not even close of running out of fuel by the time I'm in orbit.

Should I put a probe core on in and try to land it back at the KSC? If yes, how do I consistantly get there?

[Space Kadet]

Just now, Delay said:

So, I have built a lifter stage for my Duna and Ike probes. Turns out, it's an SSTO, not even close of running out of fuel by the time I'm in orbit.

Should I put a probe core on in and try to land it back at the KSC? If yes, how do I consistantly get there?

consistancy requires either trial and error , quicksaving, tca or mechjeb. prayer results in fireballs. but this might help
https://youtu.be/qJPmBl6HaAM?list=PLmvNsdXzTt9k9yKene-N8LS6xK6LlOz91&t=133

 

[LordFerret]

29 minutes ago, Delay said:

If yes, how do I consistantly get there?

Well I don't quicksaves, or use TCA or MechJeb... but trial and error kinda goes without saying. I find these quite useful...

Interactive illustrated interplanetary guide and calculator for KSP

and this...

Launch Window Planner

and this...

KSP Aerobraking Calculator

 

 

[Space Kadet]

23 minutes ago, LordFerret said:

*snip*

KSP Aerobraking Calculator

 

 

i like this one! never seen that b4. but seriously for a laugh put in TCA and make random ships, its great fun making an engine porcupine!

[Julien Kerman]

Today I went to the Moon Rover and performed a Surface Exploration Mission:

Donbro landed 18km away from the Rover. 

Then the Rover drove to the Lander in order to pick him up.

Max. speed: 50m/s

[DrLicor]

1 minute ago, Julien Kerman said:

Today I went to the Moon Rover and performed a Surface Exploration Mission:

Donbro landed 18km away from the Rover. 

Then the Rover drove to the Lander in order to pick him up.

 

 

Max. speed: 50m/s

180 km/h, you've build a german autobahn on the moon? 

[Julien Kerman]

Just now, DrLicor said:

180 km/h, you've build a german autobahn on the moon? 

Hahahaaha yeah . But to be honest, such a speed is quite dangerous especially at the Moon ^^. When I drove down a hill and tried to steer the Rover, it did around six somersaults before

Donbro flew out of it and both hit the surface with more than 35m/s. Luckily he and the Rover survived. This happened around 4 times 

[Jon Tash]

2 hours ago, Julien Kerman said:

Spoiler

 

Today I went to the Moon Rover and performed a Surface Exploration Mission:

Donbro landed 18km away from the Rover. 

Then the Rover drove to the Lander in order to pick him up.

Max. speed: 50m/s

 

 

Now I want to build a rover and just drive endlessly on the Mun(or Minmus)

Edited November 6, 2017 by Jon Tash
Spoilers needed

[kraden]

2 hours ago, Julien Kerman said:

<snip>

Couldn't help but notice what looks like Orion's Belt up there 

Edited November 6, 2017 by kraden

[maceemiller]

Today, I did a correction burn on Cassini on her way to Saturn followed by some design ideas for a manned landing on the Moon, hopefully Apollo style.

[Jett_Quasar]

The new Tie Interceptor and VTOL U-Wing have now been uploaded to Kerbal-X

-Jett

Edited November 7, 2017 by Jett_Quasar

[Slam_Jones]

Not much to show for, but I've been tweaking my RSS launchers to try to get greater efficiency out of 'em.  Also trying to come up with a naming scheme that tells me what it does without having to load the subassembly.  But more than that, I've been trying to make a whole new line of launchers that are cheaper than the previous generation.

So far, it's been successful, in that my 100ton launcher now costs nearly 1,000,000 kerbucks less per launch.  This will allow much more frequent launches, and a greater rate of science income.

As for contracts, I expanded Space Station: Earth in LEO:

 

Also put a relay sat into geostationary orbit for a contract, and used the opportunity to test out an Argon-powered Ion engine:

 

Made a launch during some very interesting weather patterns:

 

After that, I put a small unmanned rover on the Moon.  Not particularly fast, it tops out at about 10m/s on flat ground:

 

And lastly landed a small outpost on the Moon, with Life Support for at least a year:

Added a few more mods to get myself closer to an RO-like install, including FAR and Real Scale Boosters.

Edited November 6, 2017 by Slam_Jones

[joacobanfield]

I totally krakened the entire install after Hyperediting a ship to a very large orbit around the sun. (I think it was over 1E100 m)

Now no rockets can be launched and the space center is glitchy in all saves.

I had to delete the install...

Great job, Realism Cataclysm! You lasted a whole day!

[Delay]

22 minutes ago, joacobanfield said:

I totally krakened the entire install after Hyperediting a ship to a very large orbit around the sun. (I think it was over 1E100 m)

Now no rockets can be launched and the space center is glitchy in all saves.

I had to delete the install...

Great job, Realism Cataclysm! You lasted a whole day!

Well, who would put a probe into a sun orbit 1 googol in radius anyway?