What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Orky Kultur]

Tested my laythe and Tylo landers for a LF-only Jool 5 mission plan
Laythe was not fine:

(neither of them actually work yet - laythe might need a total redesign )

Edited June 9, 2019 by Orky Kultur

[Guest]

Breakthrough! Brikoleur Aerospace Kombine has completed its first fully functioning submarine, the KERTILVS I!

Junior Engineer Gizmo Kerman had an idea. "Since we need ore tanks for ballast, why don't we put six of them in a Mk 1 utility bay?"

"Don't be silly," the senior engineers said, "the utility bay can barely fit one." 

"Ah, but you forget about Heisenkermans Superposition Principle," Gizmo replied, and proceeded to create the Ultra-Dense Ballast Element. Gizmo's further research showed that it is possible to create UDBEs up to 14 tons before Heisnkerman's Uncertainty Principle overcomes the Superposition Principle and explosions happen. Chief Administrator Nancy Kerman got an ore tank through her office window as was displeased until she was informed of the breakthrough at which point she joined the celebrations.

The KERTILVS I uses two 5-ton UDBEs, and is driven by twin double-helix propulsion elements. It is delivered to location in a specially modified BAK Super Kadzook. Underwater it can cruise at over 12 m/s. 

The KERTILVUS I is only a beginning, however: while it is relatively fast and easy to operate, it lacks many convenience features such as fine-tuning of buoyancy, yaw control, and most significantly, recoverability by the mothership. 

[Stewcumber]

I spent most of yesterday afternoon trying to make a rotor powered car.

I had some success using girders (which is how I made my previous cars)...

I added steering by adding four hinges, with action key 1 to turn left and action key 2 to turn right.

I topped out at about 25m/s in this car. I thought I'd use a round part like heatshields (with collision set to 100m/s or so in the .cfg) but it doesn't really work - there is no traction, so they skip and bounce at even moderate power. I thought I'd add suspension. This also doesn't work. Looks cool though.

This morning I started fresh with smaller girders, lower power motors and no suspension. This is my most stable design and can do 40m/s downhill.

Does it solve any of the problems with existing land based transport? No
Is it any better than the existing land based transport? No*
Is it energy efficient? No
Is it fun to powerslide around in a rear wheel drive deathtrap? Hell yeah!

*actually, it drives perfectly upside down, with rear wheel steering. Flipping it over doesn't matter.

I wonder how it drives on Minmus... (Terribly I think, as whenever I did any jumps the torque would try to rotate my craft. I would spend most of my time "air"borne on Minmus so would just flip around a lot I think.

 

 

 

 

[MiscelanousItem]

Today, well yesterday I started a new "lightly" moded career save:
Mod list:

Spoiler

Strategia by @nightingale:

Research Bodies maintained by @JPLRepo

Eve maintained by @Waz

I use the Para-Sci High Performance Atmosphere configs by @problemecium

And Scatterer by @blackrack

EDIT:And Breaking Ground

The first launch is basically farming science on the pad, so nothing very interesting. The first real launch is Cook-1:

Spoiler

The second launch takes Val to orbit:

Spoiler

Liftoff:

The core continues on its own:

Just above "The Crater":

Rentry:

My original plan was to land near the KSC but, as you can see I kinda overshot

Landing:

Edited June 9, 2019 by MiscelanousItem

[Hotel26]

I've started dabbling with BG.  Naturally I'm starting with a Rev-Eng project: putting tilt servos onto Bloojay's magnificent V-Wasp Mk1

Servos seem pretty easy.  Just ironing out some kinks... 

                                                                                   

And.....  it works!

  

 

It's very easy and swift to land because the stubby little wings tilt up with the engines and you can wash off excess energy.  You don't have to worry about it weather-vaning on the descent when the wings are fully feathered, so you can come down hard.  And then BOOST the Panthers at the last moment to get those jackboots on the ground PRONTO... 

Hats off to Bloojay for his original, but this is now so much better with Breaking Ground.  (The wings on his had to be flipped from one position to the other like flicking a hand-gun shut, had only the two positions, and -- there was a 1-in-6 chance the thing would explode or get jammed...)

https://kerbalx.com/Hotel26/Wasp-H6

Edited June 9, 2019 by Hotel26

[Tekaoh]

Ok, this isn't really "IN" ksp, but it is about ksp.

I'm interested in writing mods. I'm already interested in software, and became interested in writing a mod when I wanted to change something but couldn't find an existing mod to do it for me. It was a pretty simple change, so I wrote my own! Recently, I was also able to volunteer to continue a similar mod whose author has been inactive for a year. 

Yesterday (ok, I'm posting on the wrong day...), I merged a couple of pull requests that someone made to make my mods better. I've submitted PRs to other people's software before, but I've never had someone interested in improving something I made myself. That's an open source first for me!

Thus, I'm inspired. I have some more ideas for simple mods that I want to make. I think I'll have to see about rolling up my sleeves and getting into C#. Anyone have any tips for me about where I should start to learn? I don't even know what to do about an IDE for C# lol...

Spoiler

I know it's pretty small potatoes as far as mods go, but I'm somewhat proud of myself hah...

 

[Guest]

All right, BAK has completed development on and certified KERTILVS II for production. It features numerous improvements on the KERTILVS I, with the only trade-off of note a slightly lower top speed, down to about 11.5 m/s from 12.5 m/s. 

The KERTILVS II features extensible lateral stabilisers and a rudder for better control, lights both front and rear, a three-gear powertrain including reverse, and buoyancy control. It is also even more compact and somewhat lighter. 

Furthermore, Chief Administrator Nancy Kerman has introduced a novel concept to BAK, tentatively dubbed "crew safety." The KERTILVS II has an abort feature which jettisons all ballast and initiates an emergency re-surface, in the event that a pilot should suffer a mishap, for example by damaging the propellers by careless broaching.

Cmdr Jeb Kerman has gently deposited Cmdr Valentina Kerman's KERTILVS II on the ocean surface, and she is off on her mission.

Buoyancy controls deployed, Cmdr Valentina Kerman is hovering over the seafloor examining a particularly interesting ... rock, with use of the searchlight.

Oh no! She has suffered a mishap and is lying helpless on the seafloor!

But not to worry, after hitting the big red "Abort" button she has re-surfaced in no time!

 

[Zaphod12]

For my very first time, I've actually managed to send robotic orbiters to Jool and Sarnus (OPM mod) and also perform flybys of some of their moons.
 

Spoiler

 

In Jool orbit.

Vall flyby, with faint Kerbol/Sun in the background

Laythe flyby

Spoiler

Flyby at Tekto

Slate flyby

Sarnus from quite a distance away

The true glory of Sarnus and it's rings

Too bad I didn't know at that time how to improve my signal strength (I have a relay near Dres, but even that one was barely enough for Sarnus), preventing me from sending two more to Urlum and Neidon but hey, maybe in the future (Fuel is another issue, so yea)

[Mikenike]

I built several rovers, one of which had a top speed of 105 m/s. I also flew my new cargo aircraft out to the Island Airfield and back. Malus Kerman (The chief designer for the rover branch of KSP) flipped his "Bee" rover, and had to come be rescued by Jeb and the crew. I made a larger version of one of @Just Jim's crew rovers from The Emiko Station saga, taking his Mk3 design and enlarging it by 40%. Hendred Kerman took "Bee" bull No. 2 out for a spin and he hit a bump at 66 m/s and hit the water tower closest to the runway, killing him instantly. Ensel Kerman had his hard times as he visited his close friend's grave (Hendred). The night Hendred died, Ensel was sitting in a hitchhiker in the back of the rover he was driving, after experiencing a botched abort landing, which had destroyed the craft that was launching. Yeah, I had a hectic day. Should I start a little Mission Log thread, PM me for an answer?

I did this yesterday but couldn't finish as I fell asleep.

Edited June 9, 2019 by Mikenike

[Geonovast]

When the engine gimble just isn't quite enough.

[Mikenike]

4 minutes ago, Geonovast said:

When the engine gimble just isn't quite enough.

Very nice @Geonovast, very nice. I am working on a Buran type shuttle right now, but haven't been able to do much with it ( it isn't the best made craft, I have an unmanned version currently, but haven't tested it yet).

2 hours ago, Brikoleur said:

All right, BAK has completed development on and certified KERTILVS II for production. It features numerous improvements on the KERTILVS I, with the only trade-off of note a slightly lower top speed, down to about 11.5 m/s from 12.5 m/s. 

The KERTILVS II features extensible lateral stabilisers and a rudder for better control, lights both front and rear, a three-gear powertrain including reverse, and buoyancy control. It is also even more compact and somewhat lighter. 

Furthermore, Chief Administrator Nancy Kerman has introduced a novel concept to BAK, tentatively dubbed "crew safety." The KERTILVS II has an abort feature which jettisons all ballast and initiates an emergency re-surface, in the event that a pilot should suffer a mishap, for example by damaging the propellers by careless broaching.

Cmdr Jeb Kerman has gently deposited Cmdr Valentina Kerman's KERTILVS II on the ocean surface, and she is off on her mission.

Buoyancy controls deployed, Cmdr Valentina Kerman is hovering over the seafloor examining a particularly interesting ... rock, with use of the searchlight.

Oh no! She has suffered a mishap and is lying helpless on the seafloor!

But not to worry, after hitting the big red "Abort" button she has re-surfaced in no time!

 

What are you using for the abort stage, I don't see and monoprope or thrusters?

[Geonovast]

1 minute ago, Mikenike said:

Very nice @Geonovast, very nice. I am working on a Buran type shuttle right now, but haven't been able to do much with it ( it isn't the best made craft, I have an unmanned version currently, but haven't tested it yet).

Shuttles are hard, man.  It's a magical balancing act, especially for dealing with different sized payloads.  Even once you get the thing flying, and re-entering, you put it on a launcher and everything goes to hell.

I still haven't figured out the secret to getting them to not wobble all over the place during launch.  Which is funny, because I actually had one version where you could hit the spacebar with a specific weight payload, and it would do the entire gravity turn by itself without flopping all over the place.  All I had to do was kill the engines at the right time and circularize.  (Smartparts handled the SRB separation).

I don't remember at all how I got it to do that.  The very first shuttle I managed to get to orbit consistently was a combination of STS and Buran, where it had engines on the orbiter and on the main fuel tank.  It also launched with the shuttle upright, instead of on its back like STS.  Had hands-off re-entry though, so that was nice.

[Mikenike]

Mine has SRB trouble, and the fact that I don't have experience in STS style crafts. 

[Levelord]

Made a simple science exploration rover today.

 

Edited June 9, 2019 by Levelord

[magnemoe]

22 minutes ago, Levelord said:

Made a simple science exploration rover today.

 

Wait so you put the small jet engines in the wheel hubs

Only thing I made of the new part is an crane seen in the back of the mobile munbase. 

Just got KAS up an working somethat so doing this while awaiting more part for Minmus base. 

[Flibble]

First orbit in my RO game. A bit rough as the top stage had no attitude control, but I managed a fairly decent 160x1135 km orbit.

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Mikenike said:

What are you using for the abort stage, I don't see and monoprope or thrusters?

They wouldn't do much underwater anyway. I just jettison all my ballast and float to the surface.

[Guest]

Man this KERTILVS project turned out to be a massive one. 

At this point I've got a rather a nice sub and a very large helicopter to fly it around in. The only thing missing is returning to the mothership and flying back home.

I have an almost working submarine bay. Or well it is technically quite working as I managed to dock and fly back, however it is really flaky and it's much harder than I thought to make it less so.

Fun times though.

[Mikenike]

1 hour ago, Brikoleur said:

They wouldn't do much underwater anyway. I just jettison all my ballast and float to the surface.

Cool, what is the ballast you are using exactly, I see no holding tanks or anything of that such.

[Atkara]

Take temperature readings on the surface in early career they said, "it'll be fun they said"....

And I'm not even sure if the thing works to begin with...

PS: It works...

Edited June 9, 2019 by Atkara

[jost]

Went to Eeloo as part of my Kerpollo run.

Bob discovered some unknown surface feature on it:

[Guest]

41 minutes ago, Mikenike said:

Cool, what is the ballast you are using exactly, I see no holding tanks or anything of that such.

I'm using Junior Engineer Gizmo Kerman's invention, the Ultra-Dense Ballast Element. It's a Mk1 utility bay with six radial ballast tanks gizmoed into it. Weighs in at five tons but you can gizmo it up to 14 tons if you need. There's one in the bow, one in the stern.

As an extra bonus, it functions as a buoyancy adjuster -- open it up and the ballast tanks' volume gets added to the craft's and it becomes more buoyant. Kerbin physics give, Kerbin physics take.

(I figured that since kerbals appear to make everything out of balsa except ore, it's legit.)

Edited June 9, 2019 by Guest

[Mikenike]

Ok

[Lapis]

4 hours ago, Geonovast said:

When the engine gimble just isn't quite enough.



That is a really nice concept that i may have to steal.

[Mikenike]

Make sure to give him 75% credit @lapis.