What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Andem]

I rebuilt a save from the ground up. With 70+ mods.  

[EpicSpaceTroll139]

Was doing aerobatics and wondered if a friend was nearby, so I switched to external view.

Yes. Yes he was.

Edited August 17, 2016 by EpicSpaceTroll139

[Corona688]

Having done its job of implanting a docking connector and power into the cockpit needing rescue, the cockpit and attached wingnut are able to roll themselves 600m to the craft rescuing it...  so they can rescue the rescuer, which is running low on power.  The solar cells can't keep up and the wingnut has a docking clamp, a little leftover fuel, and power to donate.  Cue my first ever flying docking!  (the container with twin solar cells, left one broken, docked atop is the flying thing.)

I'm...  not exactly sure how I managed it...  I was really low on fuel and couldn't do it gracefully.  When it got to the hard part I fat-fingered 'M' somehow, cursed a lot as I got stuck in the map menu with the navball closed, and by the time I got the view back they were docked.

One solar cell is gone but the operation was a success.  It went from 15 minutes mining per full charge in sunlight to 1.5 HOURS at full charge in sunlight.

Edited August 17, 2016 by Corona688

[Leopard]

Another attempt to rescue Valentina, stuck in LKO. Improvement, managed a rendezvous to the point of a small nudge. Couldn't hold it though, need more practice with the eggbox controls. 

Having rotational or translational controls but having to waste time with a mode switch between them, plus not yet found a way to lock either to 'fine' mode makes it much more awkward than this has any need to be.

still it's progress, then gave up for the night and lobbed a satellite into orbit which worked and planned a minmus lander mission by scraping the paint off a mun lander and renaming it.

then hired another pilot...

[Guest]

Built a probe for a return mission to Eve (orbital science stage only). Haven't launched it yet. It's a pretty complex mission, although I wanted to make it as light and efficient as possible.

After first writing this post, I made some improvements. Specifically, I moved one tank from the launcher to the Perfectly Safe Return System, making it the Perfectly Safe Orbit-Deorbit Module. Now it's responsible for orbit as well as deorbit; this ought to be more efficient as it reduces total weight and lets me jettison the launch stage earlier.

1. Launcher - your usual heavy rocket with 4x boosters to get the thing into Kerbin orbit, but with a comparatively small main fuel tank
2. Perfectly Safe Orbit-Deorbit (PSOD) module, consisting of:
   1. Driver module: X200 tank with Okto + Poodle + battery & panel
   2. Deorbit module: a 3.75m heat shield with a docking port and 3x radial 'chutes, some structural bits to make it work
3. Hauler module, consisting of:
   1. Driver module: an X200 tank with a Spark and docking ports at the top and the side + Okto + reaction wheel + battery & panel.
   2. Fuel module: an X200 tank with a docking port at the bottom.
4. Orbiter module, consisting of:
   1. Manoeuvring module: Okto, small tank, 3 x Twitch engine, RCS + tanks, and docking ports at both ends + batteries & panels. The Twitches, being radially positioned, will also help the hauler with burns as driving something this big with a Spark is ve-e-e-ry tedious -- like a 16 minute burn to get to the Mun. With the three Twitches helping that ought to be cut down to about 4, which is a lot more manageable. Or perhaps two 2-minute burns with a fuel transfer in-between.
   2. Orbital science module: 2 x Science Jr, Okto, reaction wheel, docking ports at both ends, science bits, batteries and panels.
   3. Lander module: Science Jr, Okto, 2.75m heat shield, parachute, science bits, batteries and panels.

Mission plan:

1. Launch, jettison launcher
2. Boost into orbit with PSOD, as high as about 75% of its fuel capacity will take me
3. Decouple PSOD and leave it parked there
4. Haul to Eve and park in circular orbit
5. Decouple orbiter and hauler modules, drop into eccentric orbit around Eve
6. Do science high and low above it
7. At apoapsis, decelerate into orbit that just touches edge of atmosphere
8. Do atmosphere science at periapsis
9. At apoapsis, decelerate into entry trajectory, undock lander module, and re-accelerate into safe orbit, leaving lander headed for entry
10. Land lander module, do surface science, transmit results back
11. RV and dock hauler and orbiter 
12. Decouple and jettison fuel module after transferring any remaining fuel to hauler +  orbiter
13. Haul back to Kerbin orbit
14. RV and dock with PSOD,
15. Transfer any remaining fuel from PSOD driver to orbiter/hauler
16. Jettison PSOD driver
17. Go into as low circular orbit as delta-V remaining on hauler permits
18. Jettison hauler when dry
19. Go into as low circular orbit as delta-V remaining on orbiter permits
20. Go into safe re-entry trajectory
21. Jettison orbital manoeuvring module, leaving PSOD deorbit module + orbital science module
22. Re-enter, deploy 'chutes, land.
23. ???
24. PROFIT!

Biggest risk is with the lander stage. Eve is a complete unknown -- I only "spoiled" myself with atmosphere data so I know that I should target ca 60 k for re-entry, with the edge at ca 80 k -- so I honestly don't know if it'll survive. I'm also... not good with delta-V calculations so there might be fuel issues, but we'll see.

The PSOD is fairly crucial as it avoids me having to haul the heat shield and 'chutes to Eve and back, which is a fair bit of mass. I've tried it with a heavier payload than this one and it worked fine.

Edited August 17, 2016 by Guest
Refined design and mission plan.

[Benji13]

Tested a new version of my CTV-3 'Skyreach' for carrying fresh crew to my space station. Worked well.

I would add pics but the 'add imgur album' button is gone.

[LN400]

What WILL I do today? Relearn kOS and get this script flying. They told me coding is just like riding a bicycle. They don't know what a bicycle is.

[AlamoVampire]

well, i just had a mission critical failure get FORCED on me. I was on eva fixing a ship for a mission at the mun. Specifically I was affixing EVA struts: 

and suddenly the game crashes. NTDLL.DLL was listed as the cause. Nothing new right? happens to us all in the vab since 1.1.0 right? well, this was on eva. I reload, and now, Matfrey reloads between the segments and the ship is forced apart. Critical FAILURE as now I have a ship I cant fly and is drifting apart faster than I could deal with. Lost about 3-4 HOURS work. I sincerely HOPE 1.2.X has this nonsense fixed. This is ridiculous.

[magnemoe]

Decommission of Munbase Beta core because of stability issues. 

it was version 1C of standardbase. and the first who used the medium 3.75 meter fuel tank, 

1B with the small tank is an orbital base on Eve. I left the mining and ISRU parts behind 
It had some minor issues but main issue was to low fuel capacity. 


Here is the new base in place and crew is moving expensive stuff like RTG and science equipment, I also moved some solar panels and radiators as spares. 
New base is all in one while 1C docked the arms in orbit, for unknown reason this caused breakup. 

[EpicSpaceTroll139]

7 hours ago, Leopard said:

not yet found a way to lock either to 'fine' mode

Caps Lock

[Leopard]

35 minutes ago, EpicSpaceTroll139 said:

Caps Lock

Xbox...

hence a lot of on line stuff doesn't directly map

found out it's apparently hold down left or right button on the back of the controller then press the left joystick.

hopefully will try it later

also apparently 'A' toggles rotation/translation in docking mode... And staging normally

bit like ED having boost thrust and landing gear on one button

still a precise crash is better than a normal one right?

[capi3101]

Still doing early career stuff. Parts testing for fast cash. Sent Jeb and Val up to orbit a few times each for some easy tourist gigs. Had a low crew report mission in flight near KSC; it was low-hanging fruit but my Runway is still level 1, so I built a plane designed to vertically launch from the Runway with a Flea booster before switching over to Junos for normal flight and then chutes for the retrieval. Worked - I wasn't sure if those mini lander legs would hold the craft but they did and Jeb was retrieved safely. I have the contract for a Munar flyby now, but I'm still thinking about doing a polar overflight to finish getting overhead sci from the vicinity of Kerbin. Trying to get at least up to fuel pumps and OX-STATS before I go for Mun; they're not strictly speaking necessary for the trip, but they do make things nicer.

Found my old formulas for making FAR planes. I think I remember how to interpret them too...

[MaxwellsDemon]

Launched Horus 23 to Minmus to visit the last of the biomes; landing and EVAs were successful.

Horus T-3 (T-4 was launched out of sequence earlier) rendezvoused with Station Alpha and delivered a partial relief crew; Jeb and the returning Kerbalnauts returned in Horus T-2, which had been parked at Alpha.  (I had, once again, difficulties with the low-profile 2.5m decoupler not separating the command and service modules and had to jettison the heat shield to get rid of the service module.  Reentry was a bit nerve-wracking, but the 'inbuilt' heat protection of the command module was up to the job and the landing was successful.  Existing and upcoming craft have been redesigned to use the higher-profile decoupler.)

I also fiddled with a couple of mods but ended up uninstalling them.

Edited August 17, 2016 by MaxwellsDemon
spelling correction

[MaxxQ]

Actually, this was last night.  Playing science mode.  Designed and launched a DunaSat, with the intention of mapping Duna.  Since I tend to overengineer, there's also probably enough Dv to move on to Ike afterwards.  DunaSat 1 is currently 500km above Kerbin, waiting for a launch window to open up in another 102 days.

While waiting, I decided to send a three-Kerbal crew to Minmus to fill out some more science.  Landed in the midlands and got everything I could there, then moved on to the highlands.  Had a less than optimal landing, destroying five of eight solar panels and two of the four side tanks that also held the landing gear.  Eagle 2 landed on it's side, but using the service bay doors, I was able to set her up with the open bay doors acting as skids.  Got all the science I could, minus any EVA or flag-planting (wasn't sure I could get Bob back in if I tried), then fired up the engines (four Thuds mounted on the main tank between the side tanks - fortunately, all those survived) with full gimbal, raising the nose of the ship almost instantly.  Got back into orbit, then headed on back to Kerbin for a safe reentry and touchdown.  

1800 science brought or transmitted back.

Edited August 17, 2016 by MaxxQ

[CatastrophicFailure]

6 hours ago, AlamoVampire said:

well, i just had a mission critical failure get FORCED on me. I was on eva fixing a ship for a mission at the mun. Specifically I was affixing EVA struts: 

and suddenly the game crashes. NTDLL.DLL was listed as the cause. Nothing new right? happens to us all in the vab since 1.1.0 right? well, this was on eva. I reload, and now, Matfrey reloads between the segments and the ship is forced apart. Critical FAILURE as now I have a ship I cant fly and is drifting apart faster than I could deal with. Lost about 3-4 HOURS work. I sincerely HOPE 1.2.X has this nonsense fixed. This is ridiculous.

You may be able to tweak the save file to move him out of the way so your ship can load. 

[AlamoVampire]

26 minutes ago, CatastrophicFailure said:

You may be able to tweak the save file to move him out of the way so your ship can load. 

Two issues: i am no programmer so save edits dont happen & i already hit a quick load which torched the loss and time

[CatastrophicFailure]

16 minutes ago, AlamoVampire said:

Two issues: i am no programmer so save edits dont happen & i already hit a quick load which torched the loss and time

Ah, pity. Well if it does happen again (and it probably will), you don't need to be a programmer to edit the save. All you need is Notepad, come critical thinking, and a couple of backups. Orbits, particularly, are fairly easy to change. 

[Red Shirt]

I think this is the first time I have tinkered with rovers in 1.1.3  Having heard how bad the wheels behaved I was not surprised when I nearly immediately lost control, flipped, and exploded on my first attempt. Then I recalled that wheels were tweakable. Maxed the friction and traction. Launched again. Rolled it. Tried again. Learned to ease up on the controls. Got up to 30m/s around KSC. As I got braver I began drifting on purpose in the turns. Eventually I drove full bore into the reflecting pool and drove right out the other side. No explosions. Not flipping. No flats. I am not saying there isn't a problem (because there is) but a little tweaking and then remembering to drive like driving on snow and ice in real life, the wheels seem manageable to me.  YMMV

Anyway drove to the Monolith. Thought this screenshot was cool. Mun is above the sun.  

Not sure I used Take Command correctly. I don't see Jeb but he is there. Also realizing I am modded about as far as my laptop (Win 8, 64-bit, 8 Gb ram  integrated graphics) can be pushed. Frame rate is really really slow. May have to pull the last part mod I added. Its probably just Scansat as I am currently mapping thee bodies. 

[Red Shirt]

Dawn at Minmus Base Alpha

Built this several versions back, mostly out of zzz_thing parts that I rescaled and added various nodes so they would attach. I had to search out the surface mounting lights mod before I could move it over to 1.1.3.  None of the systems actually work in my versions but it looks cool. It's strictly eye candy. And yes, I totally used Hyper Edit. In earlier incarnations I added a mining/refinery/refueling platform.  Maybe I will again before 1.2 starts me all over again.

[Guest]

Refitting my Sword lifters with SpaceY engines and nice non-orange paint from Fuel Tanks Plus. Isps that don't even reach 300 in vacuum conditions don't seem to have altered performance much.

 

Mk 11; the standard variant and hardest to fly, with an experimentally shortened lower stage that wasn't retained.

 

 

Mk 11-1; Heavy liquid booster variant, more controllable and able to push heavier payloads. This is actually the first twin booster rocket I've designed; the initial iteration of this variant had 8x1.25m boosters arranged like the normal one's SRBs, but these proved partcount-heavy and no better overall.

 

 

Mk 11-2; light, unmanned and RCSless version that resulted from an experiment to retain thrust while doing away with any boosters. Instead it features a wider base and 12 Thuds arranged in a pair of 6-symmetry sets around the bottom such that only their nozzles show.  Now this design is a fully-disposable probe & satellite launcher with an unnecessarily impressive 20t payload capacity.

 

 

Mk 12; the tallest variant, uses LH2 engines and no boosters, directly succeeding the baseline Mk 11. Relatively safe and easy to fly, with a lengthened (but still LFO-fuelled) upper stage. Black tanks are an obvious faux pas with cryogenic fuels in reality, but that doesn't stop it looking cool.

 

 

Bonus screenshot from yesterday. The beginnings of an upscaled derivative.

Edited August 17, 2016 by Guest

[Vermil]

Impatient to get back into the comfort of the lavish Ikaros rocket, the team saw no reasons to delay boarding. They did however anticipate difficulties to catch the ladder. Low gravity, remember.
As it was, they were wrong. There were no problems at all. You just aim for the ladder, take a step and <F> grab. Very easy. But they had to complicate matters first. They wrongly figured it might help to park the Rover close to the ladder so they would be like squeezed towards it. Since it worked fine for Valentina as first one, they congratulated themselves for their cleverness.

 

But they were wrong.When Kimene tried next, something still unexplained happened. She bounced against something that kicked her violently away.
Scared that she might go into orbit or even escape Gilly, Kimene had the presence of mind to activate her RCS and blast downwards.

She eventually landed again.
Far, far away. Madly drove after with the Hover-Rover and picked her up.

Back at the Ikaros again they discovered that no cleverness was needed. It was quite easy and safe to board in a more conventional way.

 

So the moment came to begin the journey back. A very gentle whiff with the rocket does it.

 

Goodbye Gilly, and goodbye Eve. 

 

The trip home was the usual painstaking maneuvering and burning. The Ikaros felt perfectly safe in terms of fuel budget all the way.
Quite different from when our brave astronauts return from Jool. That is always a scary struggle and on all three missions done sofar it's been the last drops.

Re-entry these days is just scary for Mission Control. The poor stand-up guy can't stop worrying and the flames are so scary.  Mind you, he's seen some unmanned test vehicles explode over the years. The astronauts though, fully trust their spaceship and seem to figure they're already as good as home.

 

The landing missed with a few meters. But then Dr Horst and Mission Control didn't exactly bust their balls in ensuring accuracy. Doesn't matter.

 

The science points harvest was 1423.7, just slightly short of the estimated 1500.

So, until next mission. It will either be first to Vall or fourth to Laythe. Discussions are ongoing. Both will be done, it's just the order that is undecided.

 

[eddiew]

Booked a fortnight off work because KSP has claimed me. I was waiting for 1.2, but sod it, could be Christmas

Also, redesigned the Munwolf for the 5th time...

Primary change: more better delta-v in the return stage. Where the IV had just shy of 900m/s, the V has over 1200 thanks to a cunningly hidden 1.25 tank in the middle of that service section. This being the case, the crew took a dive into Rald's atmosphere on the way home to snag a few more experiments.

Secondary change: Surface experiment package lockers are now radially distributed around the hull, rather than being next to the hatch, meaning it now balances properly on re-entry and holds retrograde without pilot input. Overall, the 5th iteration seems to be an excellent and reliable vessel.

All that done, I decided not to go to Mun at all, because I'm bored of it and Anomaly Surveyor has already offered me the Jool mission. OTOH, there's the Minolith, a survey contract, and a flag contract on Minmus, yielding a net profit of ~120,000 roots, and an insane 2998 science points.

At this point I edited my save file, reduced my total science from 4800 to 800, turned the science multiplier down to 0.4, edited Kerbal R&D to make every upgrade 5x more expensive, and removed a couple of tech nodes that I'd unlocked but not yet used (rapiers, drills, 3.5m tech). Because otherwise I was going to be much further on than I want to be, given that I haven't even sent a crew to Duna yet!

Next mission, either a micro mission to the Munoliths for the cash prize, or the first crew will aim for Rald

[Leopard]

Failed with the 4th tug to rescue Valentina, oh the shame of this, burnt too much fuel going to orbit to get closer than 9Km.

did toy with the more accurate RCS though (control guide now printed, coffee ring optional) so not a waste.

2nd commercial satellite launch and a few contracts for mun science met by existing probes on station means have now unlocked the 3rd level launch pad, so rescue five will have more fuel and a more efficient launch.

ended putting a probe in LKO waiting for a window to Duna to explore Ike for about 350k and whatever science I can beam back

lowish on funds now so more commercial work coming up

[The Optimist]

Launching Mun Base Module 2, a large habitat for new explorers. A smaller hab is already in place, but this one has a balcony.

[Guest]

Update on mission to Eve.

First off, I'm getting the hang of gravity assists. I kind of goofed off on them for the Eve mission, but when Duna came into alignment I sent two rover-carrying probes that way, and I got the gravity assist on one of them pretty much on the nose (and understood what was slightly off with the other one). In any case, I'm getting them there with barely more fuel expenditure than it takes to get to the Mun. Also getting a feel for delta-v expenditure in general. 

Anyway. Eve Explorer I. I got her to Eve all right. My design worked out mostly okay although there were a couple of hiccups: the rocket was very tall and somewhat wobbly so launch was something of a white-knuckle affair; I had to pilot manually because SAS would throw it into a crazy oscillation. Also, my extra fuel tank ran out during the deceleration burn towards Eve, and I hadn't intended for the possibility to jettison it before getting there and setting up the experiments. I did some savescumming to see if I could figure something out, but the configuration of my ship wouldn't let me without throwing the geometry really completely out of whack, so I ended up hauling that empty tank all the way there. If I had understood gravity assists properly that might not have been necessary. Another hiccup was that I had installed the decoupler rings for the Eve lander in the wrong order, so they stuck on the heat shield. That was more of a cosmetic issue though.

Somewhat more annoying was that I had failed to pack enough batteries on the lander to transmit back an atmospheric analysis -- that's 72 Science sitting there with nowhere to go.

Other than that, the mission is going more or less according to plan. The Eve lander survived re-entry, splashed down, and transmitted back all of its discoveries except that atmospheric analysis. The hauler, orbiter, and science modules are on their way back, although it'll be another year before the orbits are in sufficient alignment to get there. I'm confident I have more than enough fuel for the job. 

Next time I'll pay more attention to orbital inclinations and gravity assists, provide for more contingencies, and be a lot more efficient about it. All in all, so far it's a success.

Lander at top. Below, the orbital science module. Below that, the orbital manoeuvring module. Then, the hauler and the PSODS.

Tall rocket. A bit wobbly despite all the struts I added. Somewhat squirrelly launch.

Decoupling the PSODS. It'll be waiting right there when I get back.

Good-bye Kerbin.

Hello Eve.

Lander away.

An alien sea.

Homeward bound. Only orbiter and hauler modules remain, the fuel tank has been jettisoned and the lander has splashed down.