What did you do in KSP1 today?

[SaturnianBlue]

I believe last week I was attempting to launch a 1,000 kg survey satellite into orbit with the small satellite launcher, and the launches failed. After several launches and multiple modifications to the satellite (not the rocket), I have managed to get two of these in orbit. Both launches were extremely close to failing—the first one I chose to burn till depletion on the second stage and had to burn with RCS to get into a relatively elliptical orbit. The second time the launch went less smoothly and ran out of fuel before reaching orbit, so I had to deplete all the RCS on the second stage and 2/3rds of the RCS on the spacecraft to reach a lower, though circular orbit. 

I also used the same spacecraft to launch a small communication satellite into KTO. 

Again, the spacecraft used onboard propellant to reach the desired orbit.

 

Next, I made a larger launcher emphasizing low funds. This expendable rocket costs around 22,000 funds but can carry about 12 tons into orbit. I used a 1.875 meter cryogenic upper stage, in order to save mass and cost (hydrogen fuel means less fuel, lower cost). The central core was intended to be an SRB but this gave less choice in maneuvering during launch and actually proved quite expensive, so I chose a Methalox booster. On the side are 4 SRBs, costing around 900 funds each. 

At first, I was expecting to lift significantly more, but I had screwed up the staging, so I thought that the station above could reach a Trans-Munar Orbit. The rocket certainly was not tuned to launch medium-sized payloads into space. The second stage engine had low thrust, so it had to be enlarged to carry the ~12 ton station only into LKO. If the rocket was made mainly for LKO, it would've been better to use a higher-thrust/mass Methalox booster. In the end, this rocket is probably best suited for launching manned capsules to the Mun or massive probes to distant planets.

Edited February 25, 2018 by SaturnianBlue

[HansonKerman]

2 hours ago, LordFerret said:

I discovered that also, and was quite surprised by it. I reused one of my Mun landers as a matter of fact. Descent and landing were a breeze.

Heh, yeah but how are you gonna get back to Kerbin?

[HansonKerman]

Trying to set up a mining Minmusbase. Any advice?

[Guest]

11 minutes ago, HansonKerman said:

Trying to set up a mining Minmusbase. Any advice?

Um... go for it and have fun?

If there's something in particular you'd like advice about I'd be happy to help, but that's a bit general and I definitely don't want to rob you of the joy of inventing it yourself.

...

In other news, the Brikoleur's love affair with early jet age aircraft continues. The amazing thing about these designs is, they all work out of the gate. Put them together more or less like they looked in real life, adjust the adjustable bits, and everything magically lines up into a perfectly balanced machine that's just a joy to fly. The Juno(s) give them just the right amount of power for maximum fun -- enough that you can go places and do things, but not so much it gets boring.

The BAK Bolide has a great deal more endurance than the Karmilla or DHV-X1, as it's equipped with not one, but two jet engines, which allow it to carry a bigger fuel load. Fully fueled it has almost three hours worth of full throttle -- it will be more than a little sluggish for the first two hours though, so a lighter fuel load is highly recommended for fun flying. Ever done a hammerhead stall? Try it in the Bolide: build up some speed, point yourself straight up, cut throttle, and while your control surfaces still do something, yaw a little bit to the left or right. You'll eventually run out of speed, at which point you'll drop like a hammerhead and be headed straight down, at which time it's a good idea to open the throttle again and when you have built up some speed again, pull out of the dive.

https://kerbalx.com/Brikoleur/BAK-Bolide

Edited February 25, 2018 by Guest

[HansonKerman]

8 minutes ago, Brikoleur said:

Um... go for it and have fun?

If there's something in particular you'd like advice about I'd be happy to help, but that's a bit general and I definitely don't want to rob you of the joy of inventing it yourself.

...

In other news, the Brikoleur's love affair with early jet age aircraft continues. The amazing thing about these designs is, they all work out of the gate. Put them together more or less like they looked in real life, adjust the adjustable bits, and everything magically lines up into a perfectly balanced machine that's just a joy to fly. The Juno(s) give them just the right amount of power for maximum fun -- enough that you can go places and do things, but not so much it gets boring.

The BAK Bolide has a great deal more endurance than the Karmilla or DHV-X1, as it's equipped with not one, but two jet engines, which allow it to carry a bigger fuel load. Fully fueled it has almost three hours worth of full throttle -- it will be more than a little sluggish for the first two hours though, so a lighter fuel load is highly recommended for fun flying. Ever done a hammerhead stall? Try it in the Bolide: build up some speed, point yourself straight up, cut throttle, and while your control surfaces still do something, yaw a little bit to the left or right. You'll eventually run out of speed, at which point you'll drop like a hammerhead and be headed straight down, at which time it's a good idea to open the throttle again and when you have built up some speed again, pull out of the dive.

https://kerbalx.com/Brikoleur/BAK-Bolide

Cool plane, and I meant like drill design/crew quarter building tips, and/or how to fit it all on a launcher.

[Guest]

16 minutes ago, HansonKerman said:

Cool plane, and I meant like drill design/crew quarter building tips, and/or how to fit it all on a launcher.

Thanks.

With drills/ISRUs, test it on Kerbin before sending it to Minmus. In particular pay attention to docking, that everything works as expected. You'll also need to decide how to get it there. Common solutions include self-propelled modules with their own rocket engines, skycranes, and cargo bay based delivery solutions.

Common rookie mistakes to avoid:

• Power draw. It's really annoying if your factory shuts down constantly because there's not enough power. Tip: fuel cells don't need sunshine, and an ISRU is a continuous source of fuel, so...
• Thermal efficiency. ISRUs and drills produce heat, and you need some way to wick it away. Test.
• Not reading the small print. The small and big ISRUs are quite different, and the small drill has significant downsides. The big one is harder to launch but it's easier to design and works even on relatively ore-poor areas.

With the crew quarters, go wild, the kerbals don't mind. 

Fitting it all on a launcher: put it inside your biggest fairing, and try to keep everything narrow enough that you don't have to flare it out too much. Use struts or Autostrut to keep the payload stack from wobbling.

[HansonKerman]

11 minutes ago, Brikoleur said:

Thanks.

With drills/ISRUs, test it on Kerbin before sending it to Minmus. In particular pay attention to docking, that everything works as expected. You'll also need to decide how to get it there. Common solutions include self-propelled modules with their own rocket engines, skycranes, and cargo bay based delivery solutions.

Common rookie mistakes to avoid:

• Power draw. It's really annoying if your factory shuts down constantly because there's not enough power. Tip: fuel cells don't need sunshine, and an ISRU is a continuous source of fuel, so...
• Thermal efficiency. ISRUs and drills produce heat, and you need some way to wick it away. Test.
• Not reading the small print. The small and big ISRUs are quite different, and the small drill has significant downsides. The big one is harder to launch but it's easier to design and works even on relatively ore-poor areas.

With the crew quarters, go wild, the kerbals don't mind. 

Fitting it all on a launcher: put it inside your biggest fairing, and try to keep everything narrow enough that you don't have to flare it out too much. Use struts or Autostrut to keep the payload stack from wobbling.

Cool. What's Autostrut?

[papuchalk]

realized terrible mistake in building Eve liftoff rocket. Today i found strange button on my kerbal engineer panel in building Hangar. There is ATMOSPHERE button. So far, most of my ships showed enough TWR in Hangar, but they were not able to lift from the ground. But after pressing this button, i realized in atmosphere flight they had too little TWR.

After some corrections i finally managed to orbit from Eve, in cheat mode ofcourse, was only testing the rocket. But now building a manned Eve rocket shouldnt be a problem.

Oh that button, why i didnt see it earlier

 

BTW how could i be playing without Engineer Redux before anyway.. not a chance without it.

 

Edited February 25, 2018 by papuchalk

[Guest]

1 minute ago, HansonKerman said:

Cool. What's Autostrut?

It's an Advanced Tweakable, you need to switch them on in preferences. It becomes available once you have the regular strut. It basically creates invisible struts between a part and another part: you can specify heaviest part, root part, or grandparent part. It gets rid of the hassle of stitching everything together with struts, and is almost indispensable for certain things, like big wing surfaces for example.

[HansonKerman]

1 minute ago, papuchalk said:

realized terrible mistake in building Eve liftoff rocket. Today i found strange button on my kerbal engineer panel in building Hangar. There is ATMOSPHERE button. So far, most of my ships showed enough TWR in Hangar, but they were not able to lift from the ground. But after pressing this button, i realized in atmosphere flight they had too little TWR.

After some corrections i finally managed to orbit from Eve, in cheat mode ofcourse, was only testing the rocket. But now building a manned Eve rocket shouldnt be a problem.

Oh that button, why i didnt see it earlier

Don't be too hard on yourself!! Everyone makes mistakes!

[HansonKerman]

5 hours ago, McFarnsworth said:

Cobbled together a launch vehicle, and put my Eeloo ship in orbit.

 

That's not your screen that's dirty, that's Minmus.

 

Oddly efficient launch, despite the unconventional payload.

Cool! KerbalX file?

Edited February 25, 2018 by HansonKerman
Punctuation error

[HansonKerman]

Minmus Drill en route to Minmus Ore Hotspot.

32 minutes ago, Brikoleur said:

It's an Advanced Tweakable, you need to switch them on in preferences. It becomes available once you have the regular strut. It basically creates invisible struts between a part and another part: you can specify heaviest part, root part, or grandparent part. It gets rid of the hassle of stitching everything together with struts, and is almost indispensable for certain things, like big wing surfaces for example.

Mmm. Well, I have Advanced Tweaks enabled, so...

36 minutes ago, papuchalk said:

 

BTW how could i be playing without Engineer Redux before anyway.. not a chance without it.

 

Yeah.

[HansonKerman]

Er. Drill Blew Up. Yeah... Timewarp. Er.

Welp, let's try again, on Mun!

[Raven Industries]

Today I watched in fascination as one of the ground vehicles in the SPH did donuts around a fuel tanker.

[eddiew]

Despite the rather alarming discovery lurking in Iota's shadow, mission control decides they had best press on with the space program's scheduled launches. Because letting the public know there's some sort of alien artefact within bombing range of home would probably be a bad idea. Hopefully it will turn out not to be a bomb. Current theories range from indeed being a bomb to some sort of alien gene bank, perhaps containing all the creatures necessary to create a petting zoo.

Who wouldn't want to spread the joy of petting zoos around the galaxy?

Launch and transfer of the Moongoose I go well - perhaps too well. There's a clear 700m/s of range left in the transfer tank with only 200m left to go, but it would be silly to attempt a landing on such a contraption so Lyssa discards it and watches the explodey fuel exploding shortly before her own landing.

Iota, she soon finds out, is made not of ice, but of something far, far more slippery. The moment her boots hit the incline, the moon's minute gravity whisks her away downhill at a surprisingly insistent pace. Eventually as the slope peters out, she manages to regain control and thinks to use her jetpack to return to the capsule, no longer trusting the rather sparkly surface underfoot.

Snapping a couple of good shots for the glossies, Lyssa heads home. Back at GSC, Jay Gaelan is performing the vital task of gathering 'surface samples' from all the buildings. Weirdly, the boffins declare that this bucket full of pebbles, mud, grass, and burnt fuel is informative, and we're told that some minor advances have come off the back of Jay's efforts, which will hopefully cheer him up long enough for us to jam him into a capsule and send him to orbit.

A few probes are sent up over the next few days, mapping Gael and Iota, and bringing the first images from Ceti - but nobody thought to include a camera, so we sent the telemetry data to the newspapers instead. We're sure they'll be fascinated by magnetic field readings.

[Ace in Space]

3 hours ago, HansonKerman said:

Trying to set up a mining Minmusbase. Any advice?

I have several things to say, based on lessons I learned building Jade Base.

• Test everything on Kerbin before you launch it.
• Landing legs on multi-module bases = kraken bait. Also they will make it harder for modules in your base to link to each other. What I ended up doing, which is working quite well, is to use the engines the modules flew in on as legs - they have landing legs but only to reduce impact on landing; when they settle into their final position the legs retract and they sit on the engines. I would absolutely recommend this method.
• Unless all of your bases/vehicles are manned, you'll want to set up some communications satellites in a constellation around minmus so you don't lose control of remote operated craft every time your base faces away from Kerbin.
• Test everything on Kerbin before you launch it.
• It's probably a better idea to process ore on Minmus and lift the fuel up to an orbiting tank than to lift ore and process it in orbit. Your lifter can't skim off the top of the ore during flight, and I believe ore is heavier than the amount of fuel it would produce.
• On the topic of lifting fuel to the orbital tank, I recommend having a "truck" of some sort that can drive fuel from the surface base to the lander, rather than trying to dock the lander directly to the base.
• Test everything on Kerbin before you launch it.

2 hours ago, HansonKerman said:

how to fit it all on a launcher.

My preferences is to do a modular base: build it in parts and dock 'em together on Minmus. At least, that's what I did. But see my second bullet point.

Also, if you're docking parts on the surface, you'll need some kind of vehicle to do so. Some people use sky cranes to drop the parts into place. I use a small rover with a docking port on top to pick up modules and carry them.

Edited February 26, 2018 by Ace in Space
Struck incorrect information.

[eddiew]

31 minutes ago, Ace in Space said:

•  
• It's probably a better idea to process ore on Minmus and lift the fuel up to an orbiting tank than to lift ore and process it in orbit. Your lifter can't skim off the top of the ore during flight, and I believe ore is heavier than the amount of fuel it would produce.
•  

Just of note, the game is balanced such that ore converts to fuel with 1:1 weight, assuming you use the big converter and crew it with an engineer. Probably so that there would be no prescribed path on whether to have an orbital refinery, or one on the ground  

Personally I prefer to keep the refinery in orbit because it's much easier to dock things to it. My mining freighters typically lift at least 2x as much ore as they have in their own fuel tanks ^^

Edited February 25, 2018 by eddiew

[Ace in Space]

14 minutes ago, eddiew said:

the game is balanced such that ore converts to fuel with 1:1 weight

Oh, thanks for the correction, then.  

But my point about skimming off the payload still stands, since you're gonna end up lifting something into orbit no matter what. What's better than a payload that lifts itself?

15 minutes ago, eddiew said:

I prefer to keep the refinery in orbit because it's much easier to dock things to it

Honestly, I just put a giant orange tank with docking ports on my station and called it a day. I refine ore on the ground, lift the fuel to orbit (with a small portion lost to skimming), and dump it in the tank for storage.

I guess what this shows is that there are many ways of running a mining base, and there's no one right way to do it.

[Atkara]

1 hour ago, Ace in Space said:

But my point about skimming off the payload still stands, since you're gonna end up lifting something into orbit no matter what. What's better than a payload that lifts itself?

You make it sound as if like ore doesn't lift itself. You'll burn the same amount of fuel in both cases. But that's not really my point, or the reason I "invaded" the conversation between you and Eddiew:

If you happen to be fueling up a nuclear propelled craft, you'll be under-using your fuel drone. Otherwise, you'll have to send another one, dedicated to LF. You could also put a monoprop tank to each drone, to cover for that potential necessity too -in that case, you'll be under-using both drones.

If you decide to bring ore to an orbital refinery, you'll be able to process on the spot and convert to whatever your docked craft requires. To do that, you'll be using a single drone, or a mining ship equipped with an ISRU -the latter could also fulfill mining contracts, if you do career.

Versatile and at the same time, as simple as it can possibly be, in my opinion.

[Geonovast]

1 hour ago, eddiew said:

Personally I prefer to keep the refinery in orbit because it's much easier to dock things to it. My mining freighters typically lift at least 2x as much ore as they have in their own fuel tanks ^^

Somewhat related, as this ship has a mining drone and does the converter on the ship:

Finally got this thing up without some stupid blunder.  Sent the core 4 to an extended stay in Minmus orbit to make sure the LS recycling equipment works and that there's enough to keep them from going insane.

This guy's got enough resources to keep the crew of  happy for a little less than a year.  Theoretically fully regenerative for life support, but I didn't do any math on that, so we'll see.

Sitting full it's got about 6 km/s of dV.  Propelled by 8 independent engine assemblies, each consisting of a MX-1 Garnet Fission Reactor, 4 Stock Large Radiator Panels, Medium TCS, tank with 2200 units of Lithium, and a LF-1 Charon Magnetoplasmadynamic Thruster pushing out a whopping 47.3 KN of thrust.  They're assembled around a central tank with 35,200 units of Lithium.

  ISRU on board capable of replenishing the lithium from ore dug up by the mining drone. 

Ahead of the massive solar battery truss/ 2-axis solar panel system is the life support/escape system with 4 Deep Freeze escape pods.  The pods are designed to eject from the ship, carry just enough battery to orient themselves, deploy the panels/antennas, and turn the occupant into a kerbsicle to await rescue.  Centrifuge is the jaw-dropping deployable one by @Angel-125(who also made that insane solar truss)  Pretty sure I have more DSEV stuff on here, but I honestly can't remember which parts are with which mod most of the time.

Lastly, up front is an array of 8 useless science experiments in US wedges, like the LS tanks, greenhouse, command pod, and massive relay antenna.

 

I just realized this is the first time I've left LKO in quite awhile, and the first time in this save.  While Bill, Bob, Jeb, and Val are out suffering in Minmus orbit, I can start working on the full shuttle recovery again!

[qzgy]

I made an  a e s t h e t i c plane for the sake of just looking nice. I think it looks pretty nice.

Flies like a pig though.

[Starman4308]

I did less than usual in KSP this weekend, on account of going to a concert.

I've completed a high-resolution scan of Venus, and am about halfway through the low-res radar scan. This takes about 120 days, thanks to the very, very, very slow rotation of Venus (period of 240 days). Also, a curious fact about Venus's rotation: it rotates retrograde

 

The last thing I did before leaving for the concert was a suborbital abort test of the Apollo LEO variant.

About a minute before sustainer burnout, I deliberately shut down the engines and went for a suborbital Mode 2 abort*.

*Current abort modes: mode 1 is to fire the LAS, clear the stack, and align for landing. This goes from T=0 to shortly after booster separation, when the abort tower is jettisoned. Mode 2 uses the service module engine/RCS for separation. Mode 3 would be an abort-to-orbit, and only applies for a short period just before MECO.

While successful in recovering the Apollo vehicle, this test revealed very high G-loading (~24G) for Mode 2 aborts, suggesting use of the service module engine not just for separation, but also to soften G-loading on descent.

 

Palmachim completed its last planned mission. While it retains some sounding rockets as a backup option to complete sounding rocket contracts, I've stopped building additional rockets: the return on time spent doing these contracts just wasn't high enough.

You may be wondering at this point why a sounding rocket is going so far horizontal. This is because it was a modified sounding rocket, with a 100kg avionics core and RCS added to the first stage, the A4 fins replaced by steerable fins, and the goal: to reach orbit.

In the end, it reached a 294x11000 km orbit, running out of batteries a bit east of South America.

Edited February 26, 2018 by Starman4308

[qzgy]

Also made a tiny little iceboat.

Or iceboat like thing. We don't really have skis in KSP...

[Triop]

Started a vanilla career, on my way to the Mun.

[Ace in Space]

11 hours ago, LordFerret said:

I hope you've left adequate time/spacing to accommodate insertion burns!

Yep! I made sure I had about an hour between each craft reaching its maneuver node - closest one I had was 15 minutes apart. Even more so when actually entering Duna orbit - slight variations magnified and I ended up with 3 hours to a day between each of them. After finishing the burns to set them on an intercept course, I went ahead and did some maintenance on Jade Station; the recent string of spacecraft needing refueling had left the station's tank almost empty, so I topped that off. During the last round, the fuel lifter ran out of monoprop. I docked it anyway - while my dog was pawing at my arm wanting to be scratched, no less. I was pretty proud of that.

Once I was done on Minmus I went back to managing the Wagon Train. Astoundingly, all of them made it to Duna orbit safely! But that doesn't mean everything went without a hitch. A few of the craft, while they are now safely orbiting Duna, don't have enough fuel to reach their actual destination (orbit or surface of Ike), and the launch window has passed, so I can't immediately send assistance. Luckily, most of the stranded craft are not immediately necessary for the mining operation, in that I can still plonk a drill, converter, and tank down on the surface of Ike and get to work. The only exception was the fuel truck, necessary to move fuel from the mining base to the lifter, and therefore, necessary for making use of the fuel I produce.

I find it rather appropriate that I was involved in that earlier discussion of the merits of processing ore in orbit vs on the surface, because this situation ultimately led to me discovering an unexpected benefit to processing on the ground and lifting the fuel to orbit. You've all made very good, valid arguments in favor of lifting ore, but this cemented my personal preference for lifting fuel.

A craft designed to lift large amounts of fuel into orbit without too much loss and then dock to another craft to transfer that fuel, it turns out, also makes a great makeshift emergency refueling rescue vehicle.

When the lifter got into Duna orbit, it had a little more fuel than I'd been expecting, and was pretty close to the fuel truck's orbit. So I intercepted the truck, docked to it (albeit not in the way they were intended to dock to each other), and transferred some of that extra fuel over.

Both crafts are cutting it pretty close with the fuel levels right now, so I'm going to have to be real careful getting them onto the surface of Ike, but I think they can both just barely make it now. Assuming I can get them both onto the surface, that right there saves the whole mission, because I can assemble the critical parts of the base, start mining, and use the lifter to carry the produced fuel directly to the stranded crafts. No external rescue launches required - if it works.

Not quite according to the original plan, but that's my new first step to cleaning up this mess.

Mission Control must be a very stressful place to be right now.