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What did you do in KSP1 today?


Xeldrak

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For the first time in I think 145 in game years, I built an airplane. I'm thinking of sending a sea plane base out to Laythe, so  wanted to see what it took to get the requisite two science labs and full science suit off the ground. Turns out its quite a bit of wings and probably more thrust than I used today. I think using big sections of structural tubing for the floats will work to keep the weight down, but obviously a lot more experimentation is needed.

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To end the test I crashed it. I'm not confident I could actually land.

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I had a fairly busy day overall yesterday running tourist flights and rescue missions. I started with a Kerbal Tour Bus 7b flight carrying VIP tourist Herlong Kerman on a simple up-and-down flight to LKO, followed by finalizing the position of the Kerbin-Baker probe in high polar Kerbin orbit for contract. Val was launched aboard a Gurney 7a rescue craft to pick up scientist Barley Kerman from a high and inclined orbit over Kerbin; her mission ultimately concluded successfully late in the day. Another two Gurney 7 rescue flights were launched to pick up scientist Phorie Kerman and pilot Newdard Kerman; both flights returned successfully to Kerbin. With both Jeb and Val deployed, pilot Nedbus Kerman flew a Kerbal Tour Bus 7 Light with tourists Burney and Lagerlong to LKO; they all returned safely. 

Then Jeb arrived to pick up pilot Jesgun Kerman...

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There's something a bit off about this picture...I can't quite put my finger on it...

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I don't know which is the bigger mystery - how Jesgun got that way the crap up here, or how he's still alive without a helmet. Those must be some kick-ass goggles. Like, Culture technology or something...

Finally, at the tail end of the day I launched scientist Antry Kerman on a mission to gather Munar science aboard a Fireball 7a science lander craft; I have too many kerbal tourists wanting to go visit the Mun to be without any infrastructure built up and all my usual stuff is too dependent on parts I still don't have (like RAPIER engines). I had hoped to wait on all that until after Bob returned from Minmus having picked the place bare, but it's looking like it's not going to happen at this point...

Speaking of Minmus, though, scientist Lemgun Kerman arrived successfully over the minty moon towards the end of the day, a full four days ahead of Bob. She was put into orbit long enough to sling her back towards Kerbin, arriving successfully with a crew report and an EVA report from high over Minmus. A chance encounter with Mun on the way back afforded her the opportunity to pick up a high Munar EVA report for a contract; she finally returned safely to Kerbin still half a day before Bob is scheduled to enter Minmus's SOI. The funds she earned from her successful mission allowed me to upgrade R&D and the VAB to maximum, leaving the SPH and Admin buildings left to upgrade.

Next up on the exploration front is to dock two craft over Mun; I had planned to launch a pair of Agena 7 docking target craft to Mun to do the job this morning, but the game was being slow (guessing Win10 might've been pulling an update - that, or I got a bad game initialization, which happens occasionally). 

Hoping to start landing Bob on Minmus today. Knock on wood.

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So I plan on making a ring station around Minmus, and I'm honestly not sure how I'm going to accomplish that. Oh, and I want to make it without hyperediting it into orbit, so wish me luck. I'm gonna need it...

In other news, I'm going to make an ocean colony on Eve. I'm going to use KAS to anchor it to the seabed so it doesn't move.

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2 hours ago, Kebab Kerman said:

So I plan on making a ring station around Minmus, and I'm honestly not sure how I'm going to accomplish that. <snip />

I did one of thems once upon a time. Mine was over Mun...

fopAtT1.png

2014...so somewhere in the v0.23 - v0.25 era. Part count on the thing was unnecessarily large..

Start by picking your general design (hub-or-not, piece-of-crap-looking-like-mine-or-not, etc.) early, do the whole thing in segments and set the segments up in the VAB so you can be sure all the docking ports you're going to need to use are going to align with one another. Can't help but recommend RCS Build Aid and Docking Port Alignment Indicator; as I recall, I had neither when I put my station together. IIRC, getting the booms on the hub was a particularly nasty challenge...

EDIT: Try to leave your RCS and monoprops on the transfer stages you use to get them into position; they add a lot to your overall part count otherwise. You can still see mine everywhere...

Edited by capi3101
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1 hour ago, capi3101 said:

I did one of thems once upon a time. Mine was over Mun...

Can't help but recommend RCS Build Aid and Docking Port Alignment Indicator; as I recall, I had neither when I put my station together. IIRC, getting the booms on the hub was a particularly nasty challenge...

No, I mean a ring around Minmus. As in the entire moon. Might just do Gilly, though... Might actually anchor it to the gound so that it doesn't invoke the kraken. The COM will be at the center of whatever body I put it around, so docking will be hard unless I have RCS thrusters on... Let's say every 10 sections. Maybe make it a particle accelerator? Haven't seen one of those in KSP, I'm sure.

RCS Build Aid and Docking Port Alignment Indicator are mods I haven't needed until now, as I always used hyperedit. Thanks for reccomending them to me, I'll try it when I get home from school!

EDIT: But yeah, might make one of those stations, too. But larger. Much, much larger.

EDIT #2: Wait... But will the ring even stay stable!? Crap, I never thought about that!

Oh, I'm also not sure what to put on the Eve seabase. Maybe a helipad...

Edited by Kebab Kerman
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14 hours ago, Cyrious said:

iMMb6gL.jpg

V2 is on-station and happily digging away. V1 I need to refuel then send out to Minmus... if the transfer window is even open at the moment. Set the reactors on v1 to their lowest power state, then let it float out around Minmus while I get around to shoehorning up another 3 mil in hardware.

What mod are those drills from?

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24 minutes ago, Kebab Kerman said:

No, I mean a ring around Minmus. As in the entire moon. Might just do Gilly, though... Might actually anchor it to the gound so that it doesn't invoke the kraken.

Ah. That's quite a different little animal...yeah, you're on your own for that one.

As for invoking the Kraken, I wouldn't worry too much about it. I mean, you will invoke the Kraken at one point or another, so knowing that should let you sleep easier about it.
If you pull it off, please very much screenies...

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6 minutes ago, capi3101 said:

Ah. That's quite a different little animal...yeah, you're on your own for that one.

As for invoking the Kraken, I wouldn't worry too much about it. I mean, you will invoke the Kraken at one point or another, so knowing that should let you sleep easier about it.
If you pull it off, please very much screenies...

I'll definitely get some screenshots. I'm probably going to have to make a crap ton of smaller sections, hopefully only 120-150 or so. Docking them is going to be a real pain... Time to calculate the angle I need to rotate the docking ports.

 

In other news, I'm going to be adding onto that other station as well as actually putting kerbals in this time. Y'know, this one.

pceul4s.png

 

@capi3101@Kebab Kerman

I assembled a ring station similar in size look as capi's…  once...   

All was fine until I actually tried to doc a ship to it...  and then yes, the Kraken appeared in full force!

 

Man, that must've been devastating. Maybe I should try building up my smaller station, first, then move on to the ring. Or maybe just make a really big ring station in far orbit of Kerbol. I want to make it a hub station, so I'll probably relocate it to Gilly, which means mining probes! Woohoo! I'm gonna do the same thing as the station up in the image.

Edited by Kebab Kerman
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This Beechjet (designed by @Scarecrow88, found in the Regional Jet Challenge) served me well for reconnaissance and as a potential regional airline jet, but it's slow.  The range (600km) was adequate for the job.

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In any case, I retired it.  My new recon plane, Meteor, (not pictured), is not suitable for passenger work (limit 4 pax), so I prototyped this tonight:

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Provisional name is MetroIt only carries 400 kallons, but it has completely exceeded expectations.  520 m/s at 7.4km for a draw of 0.08.  (Stupidly, I hadn't realized Wheelseys could go that fast!)  Short field performance is OK, too, especially with flaps and reverser.

Unfortunately, that speed and its economical fuel draw is going to add up to some considerable range.  (Lessee: possibly 2,000+ km.)  Still, I think it can serve as a regional jet for me.

Appearance is mundane, I suppose, but performance is what fills my sails...

Edited by Hotel26
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So my Laythe ore boat decided to glitch and corrupt my career save.  I could probably salvage it, but I was already thinking about some mod changes anyway that would've caused problems so I started a new career. 

One my my mod changes was adding USI sounding rockets & an associated contract pack.

Sometimes they worked great:

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Other times, not so much:

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But they quickly gave way to manned missions:

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It didn't take long before my researchers developed parts for the Titan rocket and making orbit started to become more routine:

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Most recently, I had a load of tourists wanting to orbit Mun and a contract to rendezvous & transfer crew in Mun orbit.  Since my largest craft so far can't hold all 6 tourists anyway, I loaded half plus my engineer, headed to Mun to rendezvous with the second Interim Mun Lander in orbit, EVA'd my engineer back & forth, then headed home for a pile of funds.

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Rather than sending the other half of the toursits, the next launch pad that became available was used to send a crew to the Interim Mun Lander to perform an actual landing - they found an arch in the dark.  Actually, Val nearly hit an arch in the dark.  I was intentionally trying to land close, but maybe not that close.  I actually got credit for the anomaly contract as soon as I EVA'd Val.

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I may make more mod changes, though, so this career may just get recycled too. 

I have learned that 8  0.625m sounding rocket motors wrapped around a Flea SRB with 4 AV-R8 winglets make a great, low cost launcher for High-G tourists - stick a drone core, chutes & 2-seat passenger cabin on top of a decoupler, launch with the Flea, turn in a safe direction then fire the other 8 and within a few seconds your tourists are unconscious.

Edited by Cavscout74
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I'm building a new space station in KSP, modded out with Rescale! 10.625x because the stock game has become child's play for me.

OFF TOPIC (EDITED)

Spoiler

In other games, i'm very close to unlocking my first jet in War thunder, and you better believe i'm excited.

I UNLOCKED MY FIRST JET AND I HATE IT

 

Edited by TheKorbinjer
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After a layoff of several months I've installed the latest version and started a new career.

  1. Quick visit to the launchpad and runway to get some basic science
  2. This was enough to unlock the Thumper, meaning my first proper flight cleared atmosphere
  3. That unlocked some more science instruments so second flight was a sub-orbital tourist flight with 3 goo containers, thermometers and barometer for cash and science
  4. That unlocked the KOS module so I could use my existing KOS scripts for the 3rd launch, which made orbit, but it turns out I need to upgrade the tracking station to use my circularisation script, so Jeb had to do that and the landing himself

My laptop is struggling a bit even with <30 parts, but it doesn't matter too much when using KOS (which presumably adds a fair bit to the processing load) as there's no control lag like there would be flying manually. 

EXb4XKI.png?1

 

New PC planned for next month.

Edited by RizzoTheRat
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Today I've played around in the sandbox, designing a new mothership. Meet KSS Voyager. Ain't she a beauty?

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Has enough dV to go anywhere in OPM-extended system and then return home without refuelling. Unlike its predecessor, however, carries only a few scientific instruments on its own: most of the instruments will be on the lander (not pictured).

Now I need credits to actually build and launch into LKO this thing in my career...

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My playthrough has been all about doing things in way I've never done them before.  I've never built a space station with a shuttle, so I've been working on making a shuttle.  I always wanted a shuttle that launched on top of a rocket like the dyna soar, but I've come to the conclusion that just isn't going to work.  Seems like it would be a good idea, but not so much.  

bGTAIcD.png

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I built my second flying base experiment, and it has way more thrust than I need for my proposed seaplane base on Laythe. I've never used these engines before, so the flames were surprising.

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Despite the massive wings, the takeoff velocity is still around 100 m/s. I'm not sure I could get a seaplane up to that velocity in the water. And i've never tried to land an airplane. I like rockets, but Laythe has a lot of science to get in the air. Anyway this plane I slapped together in 20 minutes topped out around 1300 m/s at 14,000 m. Score!

Oh the engines are on top of the wings because I'm a real aerospace engineer, and in the real world there are aerodynamic benefits to that. I also love the Honda Jet.

Edited by Zosma Procyon
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20 minutes ago, Zosma Procyon said:

Despite the massive wings, the takeoff velocity is still around 100 m/s. I'm not sure I could get a seaplane up to that velocity in the water. And i've never tried to land an airplane. I like rockets, but Laythe has a lot of science to get in the air. Anyway this plane I slapped together in 20 minutes topped out around 1300 m/s at 14,000 m. poodleen!

To reduce the take-off speed, you'd likely need to tinker a lot with the design.  The Correct CoL mod can help seeing the characteristics.  If changing the aircraft, I think you'd need to test if you can change the design so you can get more nose up rotation (hopefully before you hit the stall) without tail-scraping.  Still need the CoM to be just forward of the CoL (but always forward while the fuel tanks drain) and the rear undercarriage (which lift offs last) to be just behind both of them.  That would require a lot of tinkering.  Shortening the tail and shifting the engines as much as possible to shift the CoM.  Then moving the main undercarriage.

As to landing aircraft, I find the NavUtilities mod essential for that.  Using pitch trim and throttle to get a steady glidepath, it gives you the information to line up on approach and the correct glidepath to land aircraft.

Edited by Jacke
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3 hours ago, eberkain said:

My playthrough has been all about doing things in way I've never done them before.  I've never built a space station with a shuttle, so I've been working on making a shuttle.  I always wanted a shuttle that launched on top of a rocket like the dyna soar, but I've come to the conclusion that just isn't going to work.  Seems like it would be a good idea, but not so much.  

bGTAIcD.png

With this shape and size of the shuttle, you could seriously benefit from a fairing. You can even leave the cockpit out.

And now you know the reason why most spaceplane-on-top designs have the spaceplane either covered in fairings (at least partially, you can find designs with tips of the wings sticking out) or blending in with the shape of the launcher. Plus the typical story story about low AoA ascent and highly responsive attitude control.

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J3nJ8DC.png

The squadron stationed at the Island Airfield received its first upgraded planes today. The aging F-86B Sabres are on the way out, replaced by the new F-100D Super Sabre.

UQQT7FH.png

The F-100D was an early supersonic fighter-bomber and air superiority fighter, and a major upgrade from its predecessor, the F-86. The Super Sabre might look nothing like its predecessor, but there is a pair of missing links in the form of the F-86D and the YF-93. Both of these designs were modernizations of the proven Sabre airframe and airfoil, but featuring new technologies to improve performance. As a result of these efforts, the F-100 was the first mainline fighter which could exceed Mach 1 in level flight. 

QjPI7yq.png

This is the product of a modernization effort of my own, in a way. Last December, I posted my first replica craft to KerbalX - a F-100. Now, after 20 months of improvement and game updates, I revisited an early work of mine to see how far my craft (and those of the replica community as a whole) has progressed during that time. I think the results speak for themselves:

Spoiler

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8yZdZ5j.png

 

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1 hour ago, Jacke said:

To reduce the take-off speed, you'd likely need to tinker a lot with the design.  The Correct CoL mod can help seeing the characteristics.  If changing the aircraft, I think you'd need to test if you can change the design so you can get more nose up rotation (hopefully before you hit the stall) without tail-scraping.  Still need the CoM to be just forward of the CoL (but always forward while the fuel tanks drain) and the rear undercarriage (which lift offs last) to be just behind both of them.  That would require a lot of tinkering.  Shortening the tail and shifting the engines as much as possible to shift the CoM.  Then moving the main undercarriage.

As to landing aircraft, I find the NavUtilities mod essential for that.  Using pitch trim and throttle to get a steady glidepath, it gives you the information to line up on approach and the correct glidepath to land aircraft.

I pulled off a safe landing on the water with the next test. I'm going to keep tinkering.

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Finally! After had researched all nodes, and (a looot) of testing, my RO/rp-1 unmmaned shuttle is here: :)

IntoHfK.png

Its payload to LEO is 47t

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After had jetisoned the extternal tank, OMS circularization burn:

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Now releasing the test payload:

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Then, Reentry was so gentle, I didn't expected that at all, very stable. I was able to fine tune my drag/V velocity (then fine tune landing site too)

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Just at the end (at about 40km), I had the bad idea to pitch a bit more and I lost control during 1 min until it was nominal. But what's funny, is that the burn/"flame effect"/reentry phase lasted about 10s. Due to have a very good lift on this stuff, so speed take long time to descrease, as the altitude: typical VVel was -30 m/s (so yeah, long reentry :sticktongue:). Then, nicely (without imput commands, only aero forces, it helps to be a real life pilot :)  ), comming down at 2/4 m/s:

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Almoooost:

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And landed, in the brand new south africa modern runway :)

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Now, speaking in funds: This unmanned version cost me half less than a manned one (1,000k for a manned version), and compared to my similar capable Rocket, (if including refurbishing costs instead of re-assembly), it costs also the half of a rocket launch. So, good! I'll plan to use maybe for the next Mars window, for a sample return mission.

:)

 

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I wonder how big I can make a station before I can't do it in one launch...

 

Time to experiment

hehehe

EDIT: How big of a ring do you think I can make? I'll probably launch it in pieces, but launch them all at once in a single rocket.

Edited by Kebab Kerman
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Yesterday was a big day in my career save. With an Explore Mun contract to dock two ships in orbit of the Mun, I designed a revised Agena 7a docking target craft and launched the craft to Mun, then followed up with Jeb and Bill in a Gusmobile 7 not-quite-Gemini-capsule-replica craft. The two craft successfully arrived in orbit, affected their rendezvous and docked, fulfilling the contract. I had hoped this would fulfill the remaining Mun contracts and allow me to get on with landings on Minmus, but I was dismayed to find that the next exploration contract was to swap crew between two ships in Munar orbit. To that end, another Gusmobile - this time with Val and scientist Lemgun Kerman aboard - was launched to Mun, the Agena was discarded and crashed into the Munar surface and the two Gusmobiles were docked to one another. Once Lemgun and Bill had swapped places, the contract was complete and I finally got the go-ahead to land Bob on Minmus.

Which he did. With gusto.

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Dampers and Springs. Dampers and Springs. I need to remember to adjust the settings on those lander legs. Every time the ships landed while I was using them, they swayed. About made me seasick...

Bob hopped around and hit all nine of the Minmus biomes on his mission, collecting all possible science except gravioli. His last visit was to the Great Flats, after which he returned to Minmus orbit just long enough to make the burn for home. I expect to retrieve him from his mission later today.

Meanwhile, scientist Antrey Kerman began a biome hopping science mission at Mun, also in a Fireball 7a science ship like Bob's.

hP8czMX.png
You look a little worried there, Antrey...

Antrey was able to hit the East Crater, Northern Basin and Polar Crater before fuel concerns forced her to return to orbit. Unfortunately, she only has 250 m/s of fuel remaining and is in a highly inclined orbit over Mun - all calculations suggest she doesn't have enough available fuel aboard her craft to return to Kerbin. To that end, earlier this morning I designed the new and improved Leeroy Jenkins 7a emergency science retreival craft and launched it to LKO; I'll be sending the craft Antrey's way later today.

Boop Boop 7 probe finally reached the target apoapsis yesterday after a twelve day journey for a contract to put it into orbit over Kerbin out past the orbit of Minmus. The probe did a relatively small burn to put itself into final position, fulfilling the contract. I also adjusted the orbit of the Mun Baker probe. With these two contracts done and the fulfillment of a few other contracts I pulled off with all the other shenanigans I was doing, I unlocked enough funding to finally finish upgrading all of the buildings at KSC to maximum. I've also unlocked the first Duna exploration contract, to conduct a flyby and return from the flyby. Like Minmus, I'm more liable to park any craft I send out there in orbit...it just takes too long to get out there for a mere flyby...

 

 

 

 

Edited by capi3101
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22 minutes ago, capi3101 said:

Boop Boop 7 probe

If this is a comm relay sat , cool you named it Boop Boop, which is Morse for 'M'.

My comm relay sat is named Beep, which is Morse for 'E'.

(Just thought you'd like to know!)    ;) 

Edited by Hotel26
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