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What did you do in KSP1 today?


Xeldrak

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Well, I feel kinda embarrassed tbh after just looking at this page! All I did was launch a lander I built into LKO, flew and landed it on the Mun, then took it to Minmus for Bill to stretch his legs before I landed safely back on Kerbin......maybe not technically advanced but I considered it a mission complete (I decided I wanted to try this whilst having a cup of coffee this morning).

Looks like I'm going to have to get better at this........

.....well, I have been to Duna and back and also landed on Eve but never been to 2 places in one flight so I guess its not too bad :)

Edited by maceemiller
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I started my first ever career a few days ago :blush:,its day 39 (kerbal time),i launched this at the moon empty with a number of jobs to do,plant a flag,transmit science and a rescue a kerbanuat.

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The rescue went well..a pilot with zero stupidity..

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..and a little later..the second Kerbal on the Mun.

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Today I experimentally tested the difference (in m/s) of launching directly to Jool from Minmus orbit (about 2250m/s) vs transferring to an eccentric Kerbin orbit and burning at Kerbin periapsis (3 burns, totaling about 1450m/s). 800 m/s - over one third savings off the direct burn - is nothing to sneeze at, IMO. It was a bit of a pain to set up though :)

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I worked out some economic realities that I probably should've picked up on by now:

1) Shipping cost is the key to SSTOs, not payload fraction. Accordingly, nukes can save money. Even though they reduce the payload capacity, they make up for that by expending less fuel in the process.

2) Old tech > new tech so long as the old tech gets the job done. Even though I can save $50 per passenger using wet wings and Rapiers over kludgier tier 7 turbojet and dry wing designs, I will never recoup the cost of unlocking the tech to do it. Better to spend the money on unlocking stuff that allows me to do things that were impossible before.

Best,

-Slashy

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My Ike ion lander ran out of fuel for the cells after hitting the last biome, so I had to send my Duna spaceplane - still in Ike's orbit after refuelling from the refinery there - to the rescue.

The joys of using impractical designs when a simple vertical rocket with conventional engines would have done the job

wkk0mh.jpg

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The last time I responded to this thread was when I put an unmanned probe on the Mun. I had very little fuel left when I landed, but it was great.

So since then, I've been trying to build a craft that will go from Kerbin to the Mun and back, but found it to be very hard fuel-wise. I wanted 3 Kerbals to fly to the Mun to get the flag-planting experience, so I used the 3-person pod, with a 1440 unit fuel tank and poodle engine as the lander. I couldn't get this to work. I could only land on the Mun, then would be left sitting there with no fuel.

So, I designed a tanker to get out to the Mun and orbit it. Then I flew my 3 Kerbals out there and docked with the tanker. I had never docked before, but it went very well! It was lots of fun and a bit easier than I thought it would be. I topped off my lander with liquid fuel and RCS. I thought surely this would be enough to get me down to the surface then back to Kerbin.

Well, I got down to the surface and landed with 544 fuel left. LOL Where did it all go?

I did a quicksave and proceeded to do all the science experiments and Bob Kerman was the first one out to plant his flag. Then I tried to get him back into the rocket. He RCS'd up under the ladder and morphed through the Service Bay doors and got stuck in the Bay. I could not get him out to save his life. He was stuck in there with a smile on his face. I wasn't really comfortable with this, so I quick loaded.

After playing around, discovering that Kerbals can slide for miles on the Mun's surface, I loaded everyone in and lifted off. By the time I cleared the Mun's influence, I had 204 fuel left. The lander weighs about 30 tons, so I guess that didn't help.

From here, I used every last bit of fuel (and surprisingly, RCS) to wittle down the orbit to 1M AP / 49K Pe. I had to orbit 5 or 6 times to finally stay within Kerbin's atmosphere and was then able to splash down.

It was a great mission. I got 844 science.

I realize this was not the most efficient way to do this mission. I'll try to refine it further as I'll be going to the Mun a lot in the coming weeks. There's lots more science to mine out there!

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When I first got KSP I did a grand tour sort of thing, flying to every planet. I've never been back to Moho. So on the spur of the moment, I decided to fly there. I had a nuclear/electric ship with plenty of delta-v, so I attached a lander to it and flew to Moho. Easy enough to get there, but with a low thrust ship you have to work hard to get into orbit. I finally got myself into a low Moho orbit and then noticed my speed. Almost 800 m/s. My lander only had about 1200 m/s delta-v. So obviously I wouldn't be able to land and come back to orbit. And my main ship (which did have enough delta-v) only had a 0.95 TWR for Moho even at its highest thrust configuration. I thought Moho was smaller than it actually is.

So I guess I'm not landing at Moho today.

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I didn't actually play KSP today, I'm on vacation but we just watched the ISS go overhead. It was the brightest object in the sky for a while (except for the moon which is full right now).

I originally went outside to find HD 219134 - a nearby star visible to the naked eye with a confirmed rocky planet in the constellation Cassopia. I found Cassopia easily enough right overhead but the full moon was too bright to see the actual star with the rocky planet around it. I saw a couple shooting stars and two small satellites that I pointed out to the kids. Then we looked up the position of the Internatiional Space Station and sure enough it was going right overhead within a few minutes. Very cool!

JR

Edited by Jolly_Roger
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I made a few improvements to the JebSled. I think I actually managed to frighten him!

screenshot4_zps16wnj0x2.png

Though considering how the initial test before heading down to the south pole went I can't exactly say I blame him if he wet his suit a little...

screenshot0_zpskpthia23.png

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I unpacked a bundled object in orbit, and docked it to my space station.

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Bonus round!

A launch clamp decided to follow me into orbit, one of my spent stages ended up hitting it on the way down.

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After a longer time of only lurking the forums and do a few posts here and there, I have picked up the game again and started a new 1.0.4 career save.

So ... much ... fun :)

A few orbit flights, placing a few sats for contract and cash, a Minmus and Mun mission, ferrying some tourists around. I am in love with the game again.

Next on schedule is a classic Duna/Ike mission - with the science and cash from that I should be able to unlock all the SSTO spaceplane parts that I need for more science and engineering challenges and experiments.

Fjord

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Well this morning I finished this ridiculous mission to mine Mun ore and return it to Kerbin after several real time weeks of neglect. Used four different craft in all and spent a lot of time on this mission.

Land on Kerbin, pop champagne, light cigars, then notice lack of completion notification in upper right of screen. Double check every parameter, load the descent save file, land again, same thing.

:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: RUWAAAARRRRRRRR :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

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