EpicSpaceTroll139

Did more work on my Failcan Guidance script. Currently my focus is on improving the aerodynamic steering loop and the path that the booster takes to the target landing site. A side effect of this is that I've been able to substantially reduce the delta-v required for landing the thing. On one end, the rocket no longer has to follow a semi-ballistic trajectory back to the pad. While it isn't exactly the most glidey thing in the world, it can substantially increase its range by using its body lift to flatten the trajectory as it enters the mid to lower portions of the atmosphere. This also bleeds off a decent amount of speed, so it might end up being worth it to remove the airbrakes. I'll have to test that. (It can actually get a little bit flatter than this) On the other end, with the improved aerodynamic steering, the rocket pretty much dead on on the pad* before the landing burn even starts, thus almost no maneuvering is required during the powered terminal descent. This, in combination with robust landing legs capable of deploying at up to 120m/s, allows the landing burn to be made significantly shorter, thus reducing gravity losses. This alone allowed me to make 33% delta-v savings on the landing burn, and I suspect a rework of the hoverslam equations I plan to do tomorrow will save even more. *something that might be a problem if a landing burn fails, and in fact was a problem during an attempted drone-ship landing (shameless plug). I might end up setting it to initially target the spot immediately next to the pad and then shift over in the last second to land on the pad. Then again this is KSP. Who cares about the safety of the pad or drone-ship? I think my favorite landings are these ones where it lands with 4m/s or so in the tanks, or the occasions where it flames out exactly at the moment when it touches down. #Efficiency Of different note, I really have no idea whether this should be here or in the WIP craft forum. I mean, it's a work in progress, but it's not the craft that I'm working on! lol

Ouch. You may be able to find a few backup persistent files in your save folder. One of them may be from before you recovered the base.

I think I'm getting close to having the Failcan 1 Block 3 ready for release, as well as the guidance script. Here's a video of the progress, complete with obligatory Liberty Bell March.

Coming soon to a harbor near you!

Honestly it looks more Sukhoi-ish to me.

As far as I'm aware of, no. However, the kOS scripts are basically text files and not particularly large, so it would be easy enough to just put them on my Google Drive, and then link to that when I put the rocket up on KerbalX. On a different note, the generalized script should be capable of landing the rocket at any coordinates (with in reason that is. It can't fly it to the other side of the planet). So theoretically one can land on a droneship using it! Or at least blow a hole in it because the script doesn't know there's something projecting above sea level there.

I definitely will be doing that. I just want to re-organize the script so it's easier to understand, and also generalize it for an arbitrary inclination launch. I will then share it for all who are interested!

Ok I don't think I can really ask for it to get better than this:

I will be sharing it on KerbalX Soon.TM

Da dada Da Da DA DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!! Not precisely in the middle of the pad as I would like, but it's just as well because there are launch clamps there. I can probably fix this by having it do some corrections during the landing burn itself as opposed to all with aerodynamics during the main portion of the descent. (Sorry for doublepost)

More very close landings:

I got tantalizingly close to my kOS script landing a Failcan 1 Block 2 1st stage back on the Lauchpad (note 1 leg got despawned by the server... I should really be testing in singleplayer)

Hmmm... I might take a crack at the RTLS abort test now that that's a mission. Been developing systems for the Mun, Duna, and Laythe missions, and this should be a fun diversion, as I've been meaning to program various abort modes into my launch script, and this will finally push me to do so. On a different note, my shuttle may soon be going from having dumb boosters like this: ...to having smart, Falcon 9 work-alike recoverable boosters based off of this: That is, as soon as I can get the booster return script to land them reliably in a suitable spot from an arbitrarily inclined orbit. Shameless plug of script development video

While the LES itself doesn't have a decoupler, 90% of the time I find myself placing it on a docking port, in which case it can be right clicked and added to the staging sequence. A little fiddling and the LES can fire and be staged by the decoupler in one press of the space-bar.

Since I've been playing KSP for a very long while, I don't know exactly what my biggest facepalm moment is, but this has got to be near the top of the list: I (or rather a script I wrote) catastrophically damaged one of my shuttles during ascent. It made orbit, but was incapable of return. So I launched a second shuttle on a rescue mission manually. I set up a 0.0km intercept and for some reason in my little brain I thought "Great!". 0.0km... 0.0km!!! Predictably they crashed into eachother, so then I had two shuttles stuck in orbit. This of course contests with the first time I launched a rocket back in 0.13. When the instructions popped up I immediately closed them thinking "Eh, who needs instructions anyways?". I then realized I didn't know how to launch, so I just started mashing keys. Eventually I hit I believe the "d" key, and I watched as my rocket slowly fell over on the pad. *KABOOM!!!*

I've been upgrading my "Failcan 1" lifter to block 2 form, which includes swapping out the old grey barrel fuel tanks for the new, sleek white and black ones. Apparently more changed with 1.4 than the fuel tanks, as I had to mess around with the script to get it to work. Still not completely ready for release on KerbalX, but here's some entertainment:

I don't think it's just me that sees Jeb as the crazy BadS pilot that gets into much tomfoolery. So I have created a simple but fun barnstorming challenge for us to get in his (space?) boots. The challenge is to takeoff, fly through the R&D tunnel, under the bridge, and land on the VAB. Oh, and do it in IVA, in a HTOL plane (eg: it may not have a twr >= 1, and it may not have parachutes capable of landing it vertically. It may have drag chutes though). The lowest time wins! Rules: 1) Don't use Alt+F12 hacks, hyperedit, etc to go faster 2) Stay in IVA during the flight 3) 10 second penalty per part lost during flight 4) Have fun! Submission: You may either record a video or take screenshots flying through each obstacle. Please be honest and don't go to external view between screenshots! Here's my entry. Scoreboard: @EpicSpaceTroll139: 1:56 Have fun!

Maybe that will work. The question is whether the game will register the antenna as being shielded or unshielded, because if it's unshielded it will get ripped off during launch. I'll look into the custom fairing texture stuff. I kind of want people to be able to get the look without downloading a new texture, but that might be the only way to do it without making it unflyably laggy.

Yah I can easily imagine the part count being 3k at this point if I had used radiators for the shell instead of fairings. I'm debating using fairings on the S-IC/S-II interstage and the S-IC midsection. They would really help give that neat corrugation effect, but it would boost part count by 130 or so. Anyways, this is the problem with the LM: I might be able to move the LM over a bit. Not sure how tight the fit is. On a different note, I just realized I forgot some of the helium tanks and cable tunnels on the S-IVB... aurgh. @Kronus_Aerospace I am indeed planning to paint it. I expect the "painting" to require 14 parts. Possibly 18 if I go for fancy S-IC outer engine fairings

I think I'm something like 85% done with my Saturn V Not seen in this picture, the S-IC is probably about 50% complete. Once it and the LES are integrated, I've figured out I can actually "paint" the rocket using secondary clipped grey/black fairings. Hopefully that will come out good. I have a minor problem though. One of the antennas on the LM sticks into the fairing a bit. Not sure what to do about that, because if I fold it it goes the wrong way.

How... How have I not seen this before? This is friggin awesome!!! GREAT WORK!!! I would be amazed to see an electric + xenon SSTO.

Wishing a Happy Independence Day to my fellow Americans out there.

Today on NoNameShips I almost crashed Successfully landed a plane upsidedown? And then actually crashed Also I believe I am finished with my Apollo command module. To do: LM shroud, CM boost cover + LES rework, S-IC + interstage, and last but definitely not least, add appropriate liquidfuel and oxidizer quantities for scale delta-v.

Haha! As a player since 0.13, I still do that all the time, but not because I still have the habit. Often when doing low flying in a plane, I can sometime find it useful to turn off SAS temporarily if the plane is in near-neutral trim, as it can allow me to make a slow, slight turn just a few meters above the ground, controlling my altitude with bank angle. If SAS were on it would start to side-slip and really wouldn't turn well. Anyways, sorry for the ramble lol. Cheers!

I did more stunting, and meanwhile saw someone who I hadn't seen in a long while. Pun intended. Managed to go through the R&D tunnel the other way around. It's much harder that way. Theoretically my Suish Mk2 can fit through that tunnel with about 1 meter to play with, but I haven't managed to do that yet. Anyways, on to something more serious. I want some people's opinions for my Apollo replica command module. Is it better to have the hatch look good and have a weird part sticking out a bit (the pod also sticks out on top when the parachute shroud ejects) or to have the hatch look a bit weird and not have extra parts sticking out? If the latter, I'll try making the hatch look better than it does in the picture, but I don't want to add too many parts. Oh one last question: White as in the previous pictures, or dark grey? Sadly there is no silver like it was in real life.