What did you do in KSP1 today?

[N_Danger]

I sent a relay satellite up.

Passing over the South Pole 

 

[kurgut]

Today, second unmanned mission arrived to moho. It's currently relaeasing a small lander, packed inside its hull to protect it from the journey, thanks to deployable robotic panels.

The lander tried to accomplish its purpose, and did manage !

Side panel deploying to reveal the scanning equipment, to see what moho has to offer !

Also, an old probe did a Deep Space Maneuver to try get an encounter with Jot (inner solar system, QuackPack mod)

Spoiler

it's a ginormous gas giant, after 2 flybys, it basically circularize me around the sun for free

Also I continued regularly servicing Starlbab station with our new SSTO, while taking some rich space tourists on the ride as well !

[N_Danger]

(Wait there's more!)

The Iota flyby is Poody's first flight. 

Lift off

Spoiler

Used an aggressive pitch down range because SRBs

 

Fairing separation

 

Second stage separation

Iota 1 conducting the trans Iota burn.

Poody uses the RCS to get a return to Gael while having a PE of about 25 km around Iota.

Approaching Iota.

And getting the Science. 

Spoiler

After the flyby and a small course correction, 9 days later Poody is almost home.

2 minutes to re-entry.

Lighting up the sky.

And a happy landing is had.

[adsii1970]

On 5/25/2023 at 8:58 AM, Nazalassa said:

Bill had an idea, and it turned out it wasn't that good.

I dunno. Sometimes a big 'splosion is worth it! Especially if there's far flung debris!

[Hotel26]

This doesn't happen often in my experience; in fact it's the first time.

This is Halbrett Kerman and he is so happy to be alive.  Just minutes earlier he was piloting a Spider skycrane landing a Tripod Tower at a Mun site known as 'Heavens Gate' (due to its high elevation).

Safely, he thought.  But, alas, a critical, last-minute mistake correcting inclination, lower to the surface than he had thought, undid him.

In the kinetic horror that ensued as steel in motion met ancient, stationary, iron ore, Halbrett made a very quick decision as his craft became many -- and bravely baled out.

Still doomed, but now detached from the accompanying fireballs, we suppose.

Halbrett is so happy in this selfie because his jetpack had just delivered him to circular orbit just above 7km altitude.  That's what I didn't know jetpacks had the endurance to manage!

Luckily his jetpack also contains infinite oxygen and an assortment of snacks (liquid & paste), so he'll now put his sun-visor back down and hang on until Mission Control figures out how to rescue him.

Heck, perhaps it will occur to the quick-thinking Halbrett that he might try using the remaining 0.67 units of MP to maneuver to a rendez-vous...  We'll see about that.

Edited May 27, 2023 by Hotel26

[N_Danger]

It was time to launch a relay satellite to Iota.

Faring sep

Capture burn

And on station.

[Misguided Kerbal]

Recently, I've been caught up in a whirlwind of schoolwork, leaving aside very little time to accommodate any hobbies. What meager amount of free time I've had these past couple of weeks have mostly been monopolized by other games (looking at you, Terraria and Rimworld!), leaving the ol' KSP itch unfulfilled. Of course, with the short reprieve which is summer break, the time has finally opened up to scratch the KSP itch once more.

Last time, I decided on a whim to experiment with air launch, and while (in my own humble opinion, at least) I did quite a great job engineering the carrier aircraft, the overall resulting launch was rather disappointing and left me quite unsatisfied. So of course, what better way to scratch the KSP itch than to build agglomerations of parts greater than my poor MacBook can handle and attempt to tackle the air launch problem once more?

Spoiler

First up, reengineering the carrier aircraft. While in just the previous paragraph I said that I thought I did quite a great job engineering the carrier aircraft, I don't believe it'll be exactly cut out for what I have in mind this time around. Just for reference, here's the carrier aircraft from the last attempt, albeit missing some markings that were applied later: 

Last attempt, we focused on only a single metric - altitude. That, and of course, a functioning carrier aircraft and launch system in general. This time though, instead of focusing on just altitude, we're also going to focus on speed - which means some modifications are in order.

Yeah, I'm not sure what exactly I was thinking when I cobbled together this frankenstein contraption. I just might have replaced the 6 Goliath turbofans (which, while overpowered, at least made sense) with... 12 Whiplash ramjets. Oh yeah, they're mounted on detachable pylons, just for the cool factor. Among some of the other, lesser modifications include the addition of a central vertical stabilizer, two rear mounted Wheesleys (for reverse thrust, even if it probably won't contribute  much) and a lengthening of the fuselage.

Anyway, let's check out how it flies, eh?

Holy smokes does this thing leap off the runway quickly, with rotation at the first set of bars. Which, I suppose, is to be expected since this thing is powered by 12 freakin' ramjets.

What if I told you that even at such an angle, it's still accelerating? Yeah, I can't even believe it myself. 

Dropping the engine pods, just because we can. Look at them go!

With such... extensive flight testing complete, it's time to attempt another air launch. This time, instead of strapping a heavy, draggy rocket assemblage onto the back of the carrier, we're going to attempt to take advantage of the atmosphere and launch a sleek spaceplane, complete with RAPIER engines and all. The theory is that if a stock scale SSTO can't get to orbit by itself in JNSQ, perhaps it'll be able to with the help of a carrier aircraft, especially one as capable as this.

Of course, even with such a payload it's in the air with just a third of the runway necessary for takeoff.

While I intended to make a gentle climb up to altitude, the carrier disagrees. Even pitched at a 45 degree angle, I have to pitch even more aggressively to prevent it from going mach 2 while still in the soupy lower atmosphere.

Of course, it takes a total of just one minute and 42 seconds before we're at 10,000 meters, and above the cloud layer.

We're at a high enough altitude that through the cockpit windows, you can clearly see the curvature of Kerbin.

Might I stress just how absurd this situation is? Here we have a C-5 Galaxy sized aircraft outfitted with 12 ramjets streaking up to the edge of the atmosphere while carrying a payload on its back, traveling at over Mach 2 and still accelerating? That's right, 821.5 m/s translates to roughly 1838 mph, or roughly Mach 2.4. I simply cannot stress how absurd this situation is (out of all of my accomplishments, anyway. This wouldn't even hold a candle to the far wackier stuff some people have accomplished in KSP ). 

(Not pictured here, but in a later such launch attempt, we would breach over 1300 m/s.)

Anyway, since we're at altitude and going at a sufficient speed, let's try launching our payload, shall we?

Oops... well, looks like we'll have to revisit air launch another time  

 

 

[OrdinaryKerman]

First kerbed mission in my on-and-off JNSQ career. I only got the idea to write down the mission plot around Orbit 2, so launch is mostly photos

MISSION  NOTES

Hermes 1 "Sunrise Land"

Written by: Khepard, Jebediah

Launch Site: Tundra Beach Test Range, Launch Complex 05

Date and Time of Launch: Januar 2, 1971, 01:55 UTC

Final Orbital Parameters:
92.3 x 449.3 km (everything else is still locked because Lv. 1 Tracking Station)

(Launch)
3.5 Gs, that was fun! Sorry if I didn't write anything during launch.

(images are spoilered because I accidentally set KSP to upsample screenshots, which doesn't work with TUFX so that was a waste)

Spoiler

 

(Orbit 1)
 <CAPCOM> Capsule is in orbital configuration. Jeb, we're enabling the RCS system. Take it for a spin.
 <Sunrise> Will do, Ground.
I always knew it was round, but never really thought I'd get to see it from so high up.
 <Sunrise> It's... beautiful. Wait a sec, lemme take some photos...
 <CAPCOM> Please do.

Quote

I can see my house from up here! At least I think that's my neighborhood... Everything looks so different at night. And from 400 km up.

I'm passing over the Krenwich Sea.
 <Sunrise> goodnight KSC, goodnight all. ssehicsivnvnmnr v  snnnn (unintelligible)

(Orbit 2)
02:52 UTC
It's midday already? Well, better get used to it I guess.

02:54 UTC
Just passed over Tundra Test Range. I can't see the new launchpad through the periscope because of cloud cover unfortunately.

Quote

03:10 UTC
Passed over a desert.

05:01:14 UTC
> DEORBIT BURN INITIATED

Quote

(yes, I forgot to set retros for sequential burn)

 <CAPCOM> Jeb, Tracking tells me you're gonna land short of the primary site. You're splashing somewhere east of Musgrave Research Center
 <Sunrise> Copy that.

05:20
> ATMOSPHERIC ENTRY
Retropack failed to detach.

Quote

 <CAPCOM> Jeb, your retropack is still attached. 
 <Sunrise> Ground, you sure? I'm not reading it electrically. 
 <CAPCOM> Nope, it's stuck. Try to pitch the capsule up to release it.
 <Sunrise> Copy. Wiggling capsule... now. Is it off?
 <CAPCOM> Nope. You'll have to go through entry with it still attached.
 > RADIO BLACKOUT

Quote

05:23
Plasma sheath gone, radio contact reestablished
 <CAPCOM> ..z..z..x.z.s.zx.xsxzzhzhzhzhzhhzzzjjjeEb? Sunrise, can you hear us?
 <Sunrise> Affirmative, CAPCOM. Sure is great to hear your voice, Bill.
 <SMRC> We see him on short-range RADAR.
 <KSC> Copy that, Musgrave. Coast Guard in position.
Drogue chute partial deploy at 23 km
 <Sunrise> The drogue's deployed. Can confirm inflation underway.
Retropack still attached

5:25:40
 <SMRC> Sunrise, we see you on IRST. Tracking...
 <Sunrise> Copy that, Musgrave.
Main chute partial deploy at 3 km
Retropack detached
 <Sunrise> Drogue detached, main chute deploy. Inflating as expected. 
 <SMRC> hey, the retropack came off!
 <Sunrise> Thank Kod.

Quote

5:27:36
Main chute full deploy complete at 890 m ASL
I saw the drogue go past.
 <Sunrise> Am reading steady descent about 6 m/s.
 <CAPCOM> Jeb, deploy the landing bag. 

Quote

 <Sunrise> Landing bag deployed.

5:30:10
Splashdown 16 km north of Story Musgrave Research Center
 <Sunrise> SPLASHDOWN! Should I cut the parachute?
 <CAPCOM> You are clear to cut parachute. Do not exit capsule until recovery arrives.
 <Sunrise> Alright Bill, but if I get back pain I'm blaming it on you.

Quote

The following bits didn't actually happen because I didn't bother to make an actual recovery craft, but whatever

Quote

 

5:45, I think
Send the boat already!

Recovered at 6:20 AM UTC by tugboat M/T Welcome Home Spaceman

 

 

Edited May 28, 2023 by OrdinaryKerman
should I make this a mission report thread?

[N_Danger]

Today Galileo heads to Ceti

 

Second stage at sun rise

Arrival

Obligatory Spacewalk

 

And return

[Akagi]

I worked more on my jet biplane... now it has guns!

[N_Danger]

Big Mission taking Poody to land on Iota

Spoiler

Booster sep

Fairing sep

Followed by second stage start. 

The third stage starts the trans Iota burn.

Finishing up the trans Iota burn.

Arrival at Iota

Photo Op

Spoiler

Poody says good bye to the lander.

Poody says good bye to Iota.

And Poody is so ready for this.

And a happy Poody back on Gael

[Scarecrow71]

So I started a new game in my 1.8.1 install as I'm a bit stuck in my 1.12.5 game.  Trying to just clear my head and see what happens.  I've got a few mods installed, several of which are the contract packs.  I do a bunch of science and get offered a contract to put 3 satellites in orbit at a minimum Pe of 600km.  I take that and go into the VAB...and realize I only have the Stayputnik and no fairings.  OK, ill just go land on the Mun, right?  No legs, no ladders.  Sigh.

I go back into Mission Control and pick up 2 more contracts - orbit the Mun, and do a materials study in both high and low munar space.  Of course this should be easy, right?  Sure.  I launch, do all the things, come back...and ran out of electricity because I don't have solar panels and didn't put enough batteries on the craft.  Revert to VAB and launch again.  Do the things, get all the way home, and decide to try and get an EVA report just inside the atmosphere.  Except I was coming in too hot and had to watch poor Bob disintegrate.  Revert to launch and try again...only to realize I put all the parachutes kn the materials bay, which I decoupled from upon reentry.  Fourth time was, finally the charm.

I mean...this happened to a friend.  Yeah, a friend.  Not me.  Ha ha.

[Krazy1]

Last several days... LJP410 left Minmus, went to the Mun for the first crewed mission there. It just finished biome hopping to collect science. The science lab is packed full with 400 experiments (many duplicates to get within 0.1 point of maximum).

Meanwhile another "fire mushroom" ship was launched with a fuel cell to repair a rover on the Mun and 6 junior Kerbonauts needing experience. It picked up Piper stranded in LKO, then proceeded to low Mun orbit where it is waiting for LJP410. 6 contracts have been combined:

1. rescue Kerbal from LKO
2. explore the Mun
3. return Mun stone
4. return 2600 ore from Mun to Kerbin* 
5. get deployed goo science from Mun
6. repair a rover on the Mun

*I will need to use Alt-F12 to "not cheat" again to finish the contract... there's no stipulation about transferring the ore between ships but the contract fails to complete when that tactic is used.

They encountered a very strange gyroscopic rainbow  phenomenon on Minmus...

More Minmus pics:

Spoiler

Landed in the elusive Mountains biome in the dark because it was near a pole and only the peaks are lit: 

Landed here in the dark not realizing how steep it is: 

Mun pics:

Spoiler

Dropping into a deep crater in the even more elusive Exotic Craters biome. Also perpetually dark near a pole. 

Launched a bit too early to meet the Kerbin return ship but got within 1 deg. inclination. 

 

Edited June 17, 2023 by Krazy1
typo

[miklkit]

Stranded 3 crew in orbit of Moho.  That is at the extreme range of my skills.  They might be stuck there.

[OJT]

After pretty much doing everything I could think of in KSP1 (and lowkey waiting for content updates for KSP2), I decided to change things up and play with Real Solar System... with stock parts

It actually turned out to be a bit easier than I imagined. Yes, deltaV requirements are huge compared to stock KSP, but the principles remain the same and, after pretty much eyeballing it a couple of tries, I managed to put a satellite into LEO and send two Kerbals to LEO and bring them back (pictured below), in both cases without building outrageously big rockets

However, anything further than LEO will require more thorough planning, but I'm curious on how far I will be able to push it . I am also kinda on the fence on whether I want to continue the "RSS with stock parts" playthrough or go and install RO/RP1, but we'll see how it goes for now

[king of nowhere]

This is actually from a few weeks back, but I just realized its significance

At first glance, it looks just like a rover - on a world with a yellowish texture that some may recognize as Tal, from the OPM planet pack.

A more accurate look will notice a helmet under the rover, almost covered by the trusses. It's Bill being run over by the rover.

Well, I just realized it's probably the very first instance of a car accident on Tal. I don't know how many people visited the place, but I'd bet not many brought a large rover, and probably nobody tried to jump over it with a jetpack while the rover was moving and ended up being trampled instead.

A poor pedestrian goes all the way to the outer system to avoid car traffic, and ends up being run over anyway.

[N_Danger]

Galileo went to Ceti

Arrival

Costing to landing burn

Spoiler

Galileo cam.

After landing Galileo is catapulted into distance by touching a landing leg on the way out to EVA. He resolves to never touch the landing leg again.

PR work

Spoiler

I cut it a little close on the delta vee in the lander design. 

Home at last.

And a happy parachute was had.

 

[Hotel26]

SPACE NEWS GAZETTE  [next]

Space Command  determined this morning that "we" have gone to the Mun quite a bit now and resolved therefore to build a VAB at Tranquility base.

                                                     

Congratulations to the Tranquility VAB Engineering staff for their fast work this morning!!  (KSP v1.11.2)

Leading to the first launch, a Spunk light-weight lifter.

 

   

 

Space Command have now determined, based on launch telemetry, that a new line of lifters may be in order.  (Cries of "Whee!",  "What fun!!" and  "Tally ho!", were heard.)

[Honestly, I think they are all just overgrown kids, some times...]

Spoiler

UPDATE: See Gazelle for the result...

 

Edited June 5, 2023 by Hotel26

[kurgut]

Today, I did quite a few things, but most importantly my first batch of probes arrived to Eve ! 

This time I wanted to try something different, so I designed un unmmaned / unfolding glider, with the tech I had, to explore and fly around our dear purple planet !

It's attached inside a 1.25m fairing, with a heatshield, itself attached to an orbiter. Upon entering Eve SOI, the reentry module will detach from the orbiter, and perform a direct Eve entry from its hyperbolic trajectory.

Once passed the heat and fire things, the glider will detach and unfold its wings. It can also do incremental deploy, to control wing span and thus lift/drag.

Sweet goal would be to aim at a spot with a lot of biomes (that failed), and glide as long as possible !

I tested this on Eve and could achieve a landing at 7 m/s ^^ So water or land are both fine : ) It's 0.625m size (using tweakscale), and weights ~500 kg

And it flies straight even without SAS !

For comms, it uses a standard C 16-S, and will talk to the orbiter which has the bigger relay antenna : that was the major headeache, since the glider took 3 Eve reentry passes to be able to pick precisely its landing spot, so that he had direct link with the orbiter relay, and thus this restrained a lot possible landing spots, since both crafts position were needed to be considered...
That's a mission success ! Mission Control is just angry that we broke the noze on landing.... oups !

the rest of the mission here : ) :

Spoiler

Cheers

Edited June 4, 2023 by kurgut

[Kimera Industries]

On 5/24/2023 at 10:36 AM, chimera industries said:

I decided to finally do a long- standing goal of mine, I recreated the Ingenuity (Ginny) helicopter. Fairly simple, I had some issues with the rotors like I always do, but not a big challenge. Then, as the ultimate test, I decided to fly Ginny to Duna land Ginny on the VAB... I bounced upon landing, unintentionally aided by my propeller, but, unbeknownst to me, everything after that was broken. Ginny's kal-1000 controller and main batteries are on the bottom, which isn't covered by a structural panel. Upon bouncing, I lost the kal controller and the main batteries. The kal was important because it controlled blade pitch. The propeller was stuck at 30 degrees, full throttle. (At least, at the settings I had it at.) Somehow, through sheer luck, the will of the fates, and probably something else, I got this little helicopter on the VAB. 

So things have been busy, but lately, I've done a lot of stuff! I did my second Minmus mission ever (Surprisingly!) and an ice cream restaurant will follow soon, as soon as I figure out how to launch weirdly-shaped payloads, with which I have minimal experience. Good news, I finally launched my Dres Billboard and it is sitting safely on Dres. Someday a nice hotel will land near it. I will put together a mission report soon! As I was thinking about interplanetary tourism, I thought of different reasons to visit each moon and planet. I couldn't think of anything on Bop that was an exciting reason to visit when out of the blue I thought CASINO! So eventually I'll put a big casino on Bop. Pictures will follow soon of Ginny landed on the VAB. (I didn't know I would be sharing all that about Ginny, so I only got screenshots of it landed. However, I also took a picture of the flight events, so you know I'm not a liar)

[N_Danger]

The first interplanetary mission is launched heading to Niven.

First stage sep and fairing sep.

Transfer burn to Niven.

And coasting to circularization burn.

[bobcook]

Today's adventure involved Jeb, Bill, Bob and Val launching on the Duna Voyager, headed to (surprise!) Duna! The ship is a single-launch style, 472 parts and 1.7M tons. Plenty of legroom and has the obligatory science laboratory and plenty of instruments. Also carries a two-Kerbal lander plus three autonomous probes for exploring different regions of Duna.

After many months of doing not very much the crew arrived at the target destination, parked in a 60km polar orbit, and will start operations soon.

Spoiler

 

Edited June 5, 2023 by bobcook
correct spelling

[Hotel26]

SPACE NEWS GAZETTE  [prev]

We at Kerbal Space Engineering (VAB Division) have always had a thing for "modularity".

So when we recently (yesterday) built our first lunar launcher, Warthog (née Gazelle), we knew it was a rule-changer!!  (And we knew some would say it was a rule-breaker, a.k.a. "cheat"...)

The rules change when you launch from a lunar surface VAB with lo-grav and no-atmo...

In a flash, we realized we could make Gazelle as ugly as we liked.  (Except Interplanetary Anti-Fraud Law does insist we could not retain the Gazelle nomenclature, alas.)

And if there is one thing we like nearly as much as modularity it is "ugly".  (Yeah, baby. Do that thang for me!)

So, here we go:

Here, I am taking yesterday's first cut at a lunar launcher (Right) -- and grafting onto its left, the modular version.  No engine and only a token tank.

It has landing fins (canted for atmo re-entry and recovery at Kerbin) along with recovery chutes, full translational and rotational RCS, token solar panels, hefty HEX controller and a standard "Papa" dock.

The next step will be to cut these Siamese twins apart...  "and thus it came to pass, Warthog 2 was born into the world".

Then, to use it, you plunk your payload on top, attach any engine you like for the job and insert any main tank (in the gap) you feel is suitable.  Hint: on the Mun, you won't need a lot.

You can go to LMO (piece of cake), discharge your payload and then return to spot-land on your Mun VAB.

Or perform a transfer boost to your interplanetary destination, and then recapture and land at Mun base for re-use.

For me, anyway, this looks like being a game-changer.

Paradigm Shift.

Yowser.

Edited June 5, 2023 by Hotel26

[kurgut]

I recently unlocked my first nuclear engine (from KSPIE), the Tory ramjet, which I never used before : it's basically an unshielded nuclear core that heats incoming airstream and expells it at higher velocity. Thus its thrust scales with the craft velocity : more air = more thrust ! But that also means it cannot launches by itself from the runway, that's why I added some regular jet engines to help push it up and gain initial velocity.
Just after takeoff, I can then shut them down, and this beauty can run by itself indefinitely only on atmosphere, and could circumnavigate Kerbin 64 times, or more!
Very useful for quick pizza deliveries to the Northern Ice Caps polar research station... 

Only issue is that Jeb is getting more luminescent after each flight, but at least he doesn't care... and now he can even find his way to the toilets at night on his own...

I kinda like the design, reminds me of some crazy racing jet powered car, Kerbal Formula-1-ish ! ^^

(on this flight the nose cone exploded, and almost the whole craft, since the exponential thrust is hard to manage at first, and things can heat up very quickly ! Hopefully we made it back safe  )

Edited June 6, 2023 by kurgut

[roboslacker]

Today, I did an asteroid capture mission, which went pretty great

Discoveries: (1) There is not much science to be done on an asteroid. (2) You can stick things onto an asteroid with EVA construction.
I also built an asparagus flavor pancake, which surprisingly had no kraken issues