What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Brownhair2]

Having issues trying to get the Mosquito onto the Wader. It's so unwieldy...

Also, didn't they fixed water being liquid death? Because I have 6 parachutes strapped to this thing, slowing it down to a mere 12 m/s, and the plane still melts. More testing required...

EDIT:

New plan: don't attach it to the Wader. Instead, launch it separately!

Also features a buoy for obvious reasons.

Edited November 19, 2016 by Brownhair2

[loch.ness]

After a long break, and then another short break as life conspires to keep me too busy to sit down and play I set myself around 40 minutes of play last night and went to work rebuilding some of my old replica craft as a simple way to unwind.  I'd lost my old craft files but I found I was pretty happy with how things turned out.

 

I got a Redstone, Atlas, and Titan working but I only had time to screen cap my Mercury Redstone (also I'm still tweaking Gemini to a point where I'm happy with it.

Jeb sits in his Mercury Redstone awaiting launch at sunrise.

 

High above kerbin Stage 1 is seperated.  This Redstone can easily reach suborbital flight and if I replace the Reliant engine with a Swivel could probably take us to orbit.

 

The only trouble I'm having at the moment is that the forward tank (RCS control on the real mercury) does not connect to the lower tank.  I'm thinking of replacing the engines with smaller ones (Need to do Delta V calculations) and then making the upper tank an mono tank with 4 RCS engines instead.  Alternately I could replace both tanks with RCS tanks and replace the engines with RCS engines - again need to do Delta V calcs.

[adsii1970]

Worked on a second aircraft today...

[Benji13]

37 minutes ago, adsii1970 said:

Worked on a second aircraft today...

Where did you get that cockpit? Looks nice. 

[XB-70A]

Today was particular as it was a station day. I always was really interested by the Chinese space program and the Tiangong-2 launch two months ago inspired me. With such a name ("Heavenly Palace-2" for some) I decided to create my own, named Shabby Castle.

As my old Short Step 2E was not powerful enough to place the 31 tons of the station in orbit I had to use my good old Neutron.

 

Starting the turn around 70 m/s. The launcher is still so stable.

 

Chelomei's team would strangle me if they see what I've done to their famous rocket.

 

First stage separation. 1600 m/s at 33 km. The second stage only got around 800 m/s but the target is an orbit of 130 km at 48.5 degrees.

 

About two tons less, still accelerating.

 

Shabby Castle now have to finish the work on its own. Two Thud ensures the final stage of the flight.

 

On a stable orbit! 130x129, a bit like the 383x372 of the real Tiangong-2.

 

 

I'm thinking about sharing this station with my Long-March 2F and Shenzou stock vessel respectively named Short Step 2F and Seedy Boat. 

Edited November 19, 2016 by XB-70A

[AccidentsHappen]

2 hours ago, adsii1970 said:

 

That looks awesome! Jeb's not the only one who approves!

 

Opportunity is in good health, and is sticking to her intended course. She has already collected and transmitted data from one biome and is now moving towards the next. Spirit on the other hand, is freaking me out. She arrived two months before her sister and got a descent head start, although I'm not sure that matters anymore. She went to collect science data and when I hit transmit, nothing happened! I panicked, hoping that her solar panels or vital instruments weren't damaged in the descent, but I couldn't find I reason for the lack of connection anywhere. Opportunity had a clear and happy connection to Mars Express, and yet Spirit still wouldn't respond. I had a thought of how coincidental this was, considering the real Spirit had a similar problem, but then realised with relief that nothing was actually wrong. Spirit was getting no connection with MRO or Mars Express, as they were on the other side of the planet. That said, Spirit should have been getting a connection to Earth. Very weak, sure, but still a connection. I zoomed out of the map and discovered one Venus in the way of my transmissions. I put the brakes on and focused on Opportunity for the rest of the Sol. I came back when I got an alert that MRO was in connection with Spirit, and set her back on her course. After a Sol of driving (sped up, of course), and when I was 200m from the rest spot, Spirit's back left tire blew. This was a problem mainly because one, it slowed me down, and two, it maimed my steering.

Now to the present. Spirit is limping towards the Sinai Planum where she will wait for the Manned Mars mission two years later. The reason I'm not moving Spirit any further is because she has a lot of valuable science kept on her system and I don't want to accidentally crash her and lose all the data. Also, engineers are coming on the Manned mission and I plan to have both Spirit and Opportunity waiting to be repaired and fitted out with new equipment. Spirit's just arrived a lot early than intended.

Edited November 19, 2016 by AccidentsHappen

[CatastrophicFailure]

2 hours ago, adsii1970 said:

Worked on a second aircraft today...

 

Never say die, Iron Eagle. 

[The Aziz]

I made a rendezvous with control section of my second Duna ship and Kerbin station in LKO. All done with first stage (because costs cuts). I started docking maneuver still having heavy back, but I quickly realized that I don't need it and detached it.

Aaand of course, now bigass fuel tanks were drifting straight towards the solar panels of the station, good job me. Fortunately I was able to rotate and avoid collision.

[purpleivan]

Finally sent the four tourists in my 1.2 career game on their Mun Minmus trip.

Arrival at the Mun went as planned.

 

Although the paying passengers seemed only quietly impressed, rather than awed by their surroundings... so with no delay the ship moved on to Minmus

 

Touchdown here also went as planned, setting up a nice view from the top of a ridge to see if this impressed the guests.

 

That seemed to do the trick.

 

Return to Kerbin went smoothly with the plenty of fuel on board, even in the remaining drop tanks, to reduce velocity for re-entry

 

But a slight error in staging order when trying to detach the last of the side tanks resulted in detaching the passenger section from the propulsion, with the nuke still firing. But with some careful piloting the two rode down together into the lower atmosphere, until chutes were deployed, dragging the pilot and passengers away from the nuke that was still blazing away.

 

So all made it back safely with a touchdown in the desert.

 

 

 

[loch.ness]

After tweaking I decided to go with monoprop on the Mercury orbital stage.  It drops my TWR from the unreasonable 2.302 to 0.268 but increases my delta V from 605 to 854.

Pictured here is the Atlas ready for a test flight 

Stage separation

And the final update for the capsule (for now).

Since this is a new sandbox game but with Kerbin Experience turned on, the Mercury's job might be early pilot training.  I could see the redstone or Atlas being useful for installing some simple com satellites - though I have other plans for that.

I'm pretty happy with Mercury, both redstone and Atlas.  I'm still tweaking my Gemini Titan though.

The titan sits on the launch pad with a rookie pilot and engineer in the capsule waiting for launch.

The titan can easily get Gemini on a suborbital trajectory with a high Ap.  The orbital module has seperated for this image.

Burning for orbit.

I'm not completely satisfied with my capsule, but it has enough space that I can imagine it working and it doesn't burn up completely.  Still this is a very cramped crew module.  

Once back through the atmosphere Gemini deploy's its glider (Parachute) and skids for a soft (water) landing (at night).  

 

The landing skids are the only non-stock part on this beast so far. There is room in the orbital module for batteries and life support.  Gemini could be used for small missions to an orbital station (once one is set up) or I might even try a Gemini style moon trip.  Its got a healthy amount of fuel in the orbital module and with a refueling mission or two it might just be-capable of a munar mission.

[vitekc45c]

Driving around KSC.

And apparently failing to post images properly

 

Edited November 19, 2016 by vitekc45c

[Sharpy]

Invasion on Gilly has begun. Relays (3 med-range in Gilly polar orbit, one on edge of Eve SOI in a strongly inclined orbit, to provide Kerbin connectivity) and scansat are deployed. The parts of the base are in Gilly orbit. Now to find a good landing site and start construction...

 

[Sybok]

Today I finished the construction of my Minmus Mining Operation.

Part A (a few days ago):

Part B:

Put everything together:

After just 8 more game crashes, ~3 Bugs and a workaround with HyperEdit :

Maybe it was a bad idea to use the grabbing unit for this
(Stock Parts only (except MechJeb))

Edited November 19, 2016 by Sybok

[Starhawk]

Hello @Sybok and welcome to the forums!

Nice first post.

Happy landings!

[GDJ]

adsii1970: Very nice looking planes. Looks like you're getting ready for a big challenge!

And welcome Sybok. Nice job on the base.

Edited November 19, 2016 by GDJ

[Thrawn889]

So again been a couple of days since my last post. I have been busy with work and just well honestly sleeping XD 

So I've had a good day today i had a 2 missions to start with while i wait for my Duna Mission. (I have 102 days left until the encounter.  ) So my first mission was the Plant a flag on Minmus  and to 'haul a Ant engine into a mun escape vector.

 So i decided to do the Flag to Minmus first: 

This was the photo i took of Obrim on his EVA i loved the Sun and the mun and Kerbin in the back ground

When i took off from Minmus i found i had so much DV left  

I had added the Ant engine to the build so i didn't forget it when i went to the Mun. i decided to go the Mun on my way back to Kerbin. 

So yeah here is my Munar orbit on my way back to Kerbin. This got me both my achievements. I had the DV for and landing at the mun but decided to do a quick orbit and fly-by for the mission.

So yeah on there way back i screenshot our re-entry vehicle 

And the game crashed... I was liquided. then found out that the autosave had hit when i got Munar Orbit rather than the start of my Minmus mission  

So i then decided i needed to do a Munar Landing after all that and here's a random picture of my Munar Landing. 

After all of this i decided to try and build a Sat Relay for Kerbin Orbit. 

Can't really say too much about this is in a polar orbit at about <500k orbit. It seems to be working and the final stage is stabilized when needed by 8 RCS thrusters and 2 Monopropellant tanks.  

 

Next step is to put one in Mnmus orbit to try and reach my Duna Mission XD still not sure if i have the DV to land on Duna so i might go for Eve instead or possibly just a fly through the system.  IDK.

[Martian Emigrant]

Good day to all Kerbophiles.

Yesterday was work. Makes me wish I had to go to work so I could rest and be lazy.

http://imgur.com/a/UrTfs

Continuing my end-of-career-plan with more upgrades for newbies.

The name of the ship type is Evil Twin 3.1 but the crew nicknamed it "Fang". Sure. Why not.

Dudgel the pilot is commander on this Crosscountry upgrade trip.

They got to Minmus no problem, Fuel fat by my standards. But the resources were poor at the landing site.

They had to relocate. Going down hill was the better choice as it cost little or no fuel to go places. But Dudgel elected to travel up hill. To one of the two science stations on Minmus. ~27km. About half of it uphill (Gentle). Treacherous terrain all around. But the direct path was good enough.

While the Green horns were getting out of their ship the old-hands were coming out too. New faces after 1 year on mission.

There was a Kerbal party. Involving hugs. Jumping in the low gravity. Flag waving. Snacks were traded.

The old hands had Kurly-Joes wich can't be had on Kerbin anymore and the tenderfoots had some Jelly-O-Wich. The new standard by which snack are measured.

After ~130days they were fuelled. And said goodbye to their new livelong friends.

They followed the mission profile and left Kerbin's SOI before proceeding to the Mun. Being fuel fat they were able to choose their landing site. No one to visit this time. With the tech tree almost full the Mun stations have been called back to Kerbin. They chose to go to "First Landing". The site were Valentina, Bill and Bob first touched down on the Mun and left a Science Station behind.

"Back then they didn't have computers"

"Back then they used a pen and paper"

"I heard they used a pencil"

"I know that Bob only did it in his head"

"Valentina never opened a book in her life"

"Bill could rebuild and engine with is eyes covered"

While they were gone time and science was moving on.

The tech tree is now full. 

"Exodus" is upon us.

 

ME

Edited November 19, 2016 by Martian Emigrant

[The Raging Sandwich]

Transit 9 (A high-gain relay probe to recieve signals from the farthest corners of the Kerbol system. Placed in a 18,000x26,000 km polar orbit by the first Kerbin 1-2 booster.): Success

Minmus 2 (A retry of the Minmus 1 mission after its successful abort. The same crew was launched into orbit, conducted 10 orbits, deorbited, and landed.): Success

Minmus 3 (The first manned Minmus mission launched by a Duna B. It carried with it a lander and the CSM. Upon decoupling of the first stage, the second and third stage exploded, causing an immediate abort. The crew landed safely in the ocean. A 100-day launch hiatus was issued for investigation.): Failure

Messenger 14 reached Eve. The probe lowered the orbit to within the atmosphere and decoupled the tiny lander, immediately raising the altitude back up to safe altitudes. The probe plunged into the atmosphere at nearly 6 km/s. The atmosphere was too much for the tiny lander and it exploded mid-air. A lot was learned about the atmosphere of Eve that day. (Lander: Failure) (Probe: Success)

Transit 9 launch

Minmus 2 launch

Minmus 2 before reentry

Minmus 3 on the launchpad

Messenger 14

Lander decoupled

[septemberWaves]

The past few days have been interesting. I've experimented with propulsive landing technology, worked on my large Ophiuchus-series launch vehicles, and put together some heavy landing vehicles for Wal and Tylo/Slate.

Note: MechJeb's suicide burns are terrifying.

 

Today, I began my new long-term career game. Things started small with a sounding rocket to gather some science data:

And then Valentina became the first kerbal to orbit Kerbin in a Janus 1 CT-1A spacecraft (Launched on a Cinnabar 101).

The next mission will be the launch of a Janus 1 CT-1B, which carries some science equipment. Then a Janus 2 CT-1C, which is an early 2-kerbal spacecraft. There are also plans for sending small probes to fly by the Mun and Minmus, and return some science data to Kerbin.

[SmashingKirby148]

They're finally here. My Kerbals have finally landed on Laythe. Time for the construction of the base

[mrmcp1]

Drove my hovercraft up a small mountain

only lost 3 parts

[SmashingKirby148]

1 minute ago, mrmcp1 said:

Drove my hovercraft up a small mountain

only lost 3 parts

 

That is actually gorgeous. The wing parts are so good for shaping a craft.

[mrmcp1]

Just now, SmashingKirby148 said:

That is actually gorgeous. The wing parts are so good for shaping a craft.

It looked better with the front wing parts still attached 

[SmashingKirby148]

Just now, mrmcp1 said:

It looked better with the front wing parts still attached 

I could imagine

[Brownhair2]

 

The MTU Horizon is back in orbit around Kerbin:

And her tired crew are ready to leave after spending 11 years cooped up in the crew cabins, only to end up not going anywhere.

I figured "Hey, let's use the Duneshifters to get some of them back quicker! They should be able to do that, right? It doesn't matter if they get damaged, so long as the crew cabin is intact!"

Nope. Started tumbling out of control.

So then I decided to de-orbit them using the Horizon, then return to a stable orbit. But when I tried to burn prograde, one of them hit a solar panel.

So I came up with a solution that worked out for me:

1. Undock Duneshifters
2. Push them away from the Horizon
3. Wait for them to float a safe distance away
4. Whack-a-Kerbal them to smithereens

And now there's a giant cloud of debris.

worth it

Edited November 19, 2016 by Brownhair2