Cavscout74

Started off with some adjustments to my CF-02 Cobra, eliminating the ground-looping issues. Also did some stall testing - power off with gear & flaps down, it stalls right at 30 m/s. For power-on stalls, well, it's TWR is >1 so that wasn't really happening. Maybe a vertical climb up until the engine starts losing significant power. Then it was time for a test flight of the crewed Mun orbiter. The first try ended up 9 m/s short of completing the return to Kerbin maneuver so a quick revert & redesign (still haven't started career, just testing designs & tweaking the tech tree) was called for. The improved version got back to Kerbin with nearly 400 m/s dV remaining, allowing for a final deceleration burn just before reentry. Somehow in the process Jeb disappeared - he wasn't on EVA, wasn't showing up in the tracking station, wasn't even listed in the astronaut complex (not even as KIA initially). After the mission, he showed up on the KIA list - apparently when he tried to reenter the capsule after an EVA, he was krakened into solar orbit & died. Had to do a little text editing to fix that. Initial version: Improved version with larger SRB & stretched radial fuel tanks Booster separation with Mun in the background: Mun transfer Mun arrival - entered a ~100km circular orbit, stepped down to a 50km orbit to simulate rendezvous with a lander, then departed for home from the 50 km orbit

It would be nice to see something in stock - and the VASI for level 2 & PAPI for level 3 makes total sense. Approach lighting would be nice, but not having it isn't that big a deal for me.

After a break of a few days, I got my a Minmus satellite into a polar orbit, sending back a bunch of science then tested a pair of reworked aircraft designs. HECS-Minmus Jeb got to test out the improved CF-01B SuperStar, based on the basic Star with improved, afterburning engines. Even with afterburners, it can't quite break mach 1 down low (250 m/s dry, 339 m/s wet at 1000m) but by climbing up to 3000m, Jeb was able to push through to just over mach 1 (345 m/s) Val was assigned the completely new CF-02 Cobra, the first swept-wing jet, powered by a new turbofan engine. It was an improvement in every category. The engine begins to overheat as it accelerates, and Val was forced to reduce power after reaching 563 m/s at 1000m. After turning around and climbing to 2500m, she was about to get up to 569 m/s before needing to throttle back. The Cobra has a distressing tendency to ground loop after landing, and some adjustments are needed before putting it into operational service. Descending towards the desert airstrip, her engine dangerously hot Making a low pass over the airstrip before returning to land

IIRC, originally KSP2 was announced as being for PC-only to start - so other users will be stuck with KSP1 until/unless that changes. Unless they've changed that & I missed it.

It does seem rather high, but then again I've never once worried when I've had extra dV on a mission.

This is one forum I've never ignored anyone - I didn't even realize I could until I first saw this post. Several MMO's I've played in the past had greater or lesser numbers of players - both in game & in forums - on ignore. Here, even when I've disagreed with someone, we both had valid reasons for our opinions. I think this might be the most civil forum I've ever been in. And kudos to the mods for helping keep it that way, too.

Continued working my way through - and adjusting - the tech tree in my science save Surveyor-1 launched to the Mun on an Atlas-Agena Bill also wrapped up his day in orbit - his final sunset before reentry Then it was time to launch another probe, an Argo, atop the new Titan launcher After reaching orbit, the Agena upper stage doesn't have enough dV to do too much more than push the Argo out of Kerbin's SoI It does become the first kebin-made object to leave Kerbin's SoI a few days after Surveyor-1 completes its Mun mission. I'm actually trying to find a way to at least get an Eve fly-by - there should be enough dV, but my timing was just horrible, so it may take a few years While Argo-1 was leaving Kerbin behind, Surveyor-1 arrived at the Mun and performed the first soft landing The Agena stage and the braking SRB scrubbed off most of the velocity, leaving only about 200 m/s for the Surveyor's landing thrusters to burn off The lack of larger launch vehicles limits my ability to get probes off to other planets. However, using a very experimental triple Titan, a probe was launched into LKO that will head to Jool It will be on fumes by the time is arrives though, and won't be doing too much more than a Tylo flyby to capture around Jool Last but not least, first launch of an Acorn pod with 2 kerbals on board. They are scheduled to spend 5 days in LKO, performing the first spacewalks before returning home.

The one time they mentioned the play modes, they indicated it would be closer to science mode than career - which to me indicates no contracts or funds. But that was a while ago & I haven't seen anything mentioned since

Got a few more Pioneer comm relays into orbit today - switched to using a complete Atlas-Agena, which substantially increased the orbital altitudes I could reach The first one used an Agena engine on a small fuel tank, and was a big improvement over previous launches that ended up spinning out of control Then I realized "hey, why don't you just use the complete Agena like it was meant to be used" That one was placed in a large polar orbit The next one became my first (in this save) Mun orbiter In between satellite launches, Jeb, Val & Bill all got their first orbital flights in. Jeb was first, with a short 2-orbit trip in the basic Atlas-Moho View from the cockpit during splashdown Val rode the upgraded Atlas-Mohogena (Moho-Agena) and spent 4 hours in orbit before the batteries started running low & she returned. Bill took up an improved Mohogena with solar panels and is planning to spend a full day in orbit Bill's first sunrise in orbit

Soylent Green is..... Kerbals!!! At least there would be no need for artificial dyes as food coloring

I'm in the US and agree with the "keep it metric" idea for stock. I wouldn't mind a toggle between m/s & km/h though. Like the way you can now toggle AGL & MSL altitudes.

The 0.35m nose cone parachute from USI Sounding Rockets

Fired off a few sounding rockets for science, then Val got her shot at a suborbital hop Meanwhile, Jeb was testing out some new aircraft - the jet CF-01 Star and the turboprop CFP-05 (currently nameless) The -05 had some serious issues with the engine dropping to just 14kN power output in flight. If that can be alleviated, this may be a nice aircraft. Until that happens, this will go back to the corner of the SPH to gather dust Also used the Atlas to boost a pair of comm relays into orbit, but my communications is still horrible. I think something is set wrong in my science save, because comm's are worse than other JNSQ saves I've had The first one used a LFO upper stage that has a misalignment on the thrust axis. Unfortunately with the reduced reaction wheels, that made it nearly uncontrollable so I tried a SRB upper stage - unfortunately, that was also out of alignment and it just spun out of control until the SRB burned out. The satellite was able to regain control quickly after staging the spent SRB and on the plus side, the Atlas got me high enough that the satellite's monoprop engine was able to finish orbital insertion. Finally, Bob got to deploy another ground relay, west of KSC this time.

@Hotel26That is what I generally do. I actually have a tail-wheel endorsement on my real world pilot's license. Some designs are better for wheel landings, others prefer 3-pointers. This design is just really close at full fuel and there isn't much more I can move. The Merlin is supposed to be a longer range aircraft than the Hawk, so it needs to nose tank to meet that criteria and stay at 30 parts or less. The original (pre-nose tank) was a little tamer. The nose tank is set to drain first, and when it is empty, it behaves better. But when I just take off, do a quick speed test & come back to land, it doesn't drain much fuel. It can be landed, but if you do much more than tap the brakes you risk a nose-over. I may try to lower the main wheel brakes a bit more to give a better margin of error. @ColdJI've seen a few mods with adjustable weights and I've also often stuck radial parts (either life support or ore cans) between other parts to adjust CoM. In this case, I'm sitting either at or really close to the 30 part limit for the level 1 SPH (not on my KSP computer at the moment to say for sure). The Merlin is just really close on everything. It's kinda pushing the performance capability of straight-wing props. Glad you're liking my posts. I'm really looking forward to restarting my JNSQ career - my first one fell victim to 1.11 bugs, so I've reverted to 1.10 and in the process trying to fine tune a tech tree to be exactly how I want it before starting again.

Worked on some more prop planes, made some more tech tree adjustments, and sent Jeb on the first suborbital hop in my experimental science save that came <1m from disaster Put a retractable tailwheel on the "Merlin" fighter - looks better, but only gained 0.1 m/s top speed. It's still pretty nose-heavy on the ground..... Then I built a completely new design - the CR-01 "Skylar" reconnaissance plane. Features an aft facing rear cabin for an observer and ample fuel. Despite the somewhat ungainly appearance, it actually flew pretty well. I also tested an alternate version with a quite different observer pod. I liked the look a little better, but even going backwards, it's extremely draggy - dropping my top speed by 40 m/s To assist with satellite launches from DSC, Bob deployed a comm relay rover on the shores east of DSC Then it was Jeb's turn to shine: The Reliant engine produces significant acceleration as the fuel burns off, resulting in the near disaster when I jettisoned the LES - the tower barely cleared the pod, and ended up smashing the control fin on the bottom side of the first stage The flight continued without further incident, and soon Jeb was drifting weightless. Using the RCS system, he rotated to look back at the discarded booster that took him to space Then it was time to fire the retropack and prepare for reentry. Unlike orbital missions, for this hop the retropack was fired prograde, to increase velocity slightly to help test the heatshield before orbital missions

Spent some more time working on prop planes today - worked on some trucks as well, but no pics of those. First came some more work to my Hawk single engine plane. I tested it top speed - it will hit 186 m/s at 1000m. Also removed the aft fuel tank to increase stability, making it smoother to fly. Usually. Then I rebuilt my Tiger twin-engine to handle the reduced reaction wheel strength. It didn't really require much work to my surprise and Jeb got in a little exploring. It will top out at 195.8m/s at 1000m Finally came the CFP-03 Merlin single engine, the fastest of the lot - able to reach 203.1 m/s at 1000m An added forward fuel tank increases range but it is slightly nose heavy on the ground when full of fuel, requiring some care on the part of the pilot

Yes

Making some progress on the tech tree, and getting some early game stuff put together Here's some of what the fledgling space program will be able to use at the start. Cutting my reaction wheel strength to 10% is making me appreciate just how much they do. But the CFP-01 Hawk can be flown with trim and even landed using the trim command. Instead of I-beam & stock wheel rovers being allowed to start, I am allowing myself basic Feline Utility Rover designs using the truck cab & "Paw" wheels. I used a copy of the fuel cell that uses LF & intake air to provide power. Flight testing the Hawk. It is recreated from previous designs I've used, but needed some tweaking to fly right with the 10% reaction wheels Then sent up a Jabbit 1 / Pioneer as an attempt at a low-tech comm relay & science probe. In keeping with the early NASA theme, it uses a Flea SRB as the second stage instead of the "untested" idea of lighting a liquid fuel rocket in flight. The Flea was not enough though, so a redesign was in order, adding a fuel tank to the first stage and replacing the Flea with a Hammer The Pioneer also sports a 4kN monoprop engine which finished the job of reaching orbit, with a whole 50 m/s remaining up reaching an 87x134km orbit

Made some changes to the tech tree I'm tinkering with, then tested a reusable launcher again, followed by launching an asteroid observer probe into kerbolar orbit and finally started building a general purpose probe for flights to the outer planets in JNSQ - the only change I might make is the antenna, which is only 200G. The 400G relay antennas I have don't fit with the camera & RTG booms when folded, but I may switch to a folding 400G direct antenna to increase range. A final option might be one of the JX2 antennas. I ran out of time before finishing, but I sent the probe and fairing to the pad to make sure the fairing was hitting any of the probe parts during deployment The 3.75m Granok-Resusable almost found an island to land on this time... DSIRO-1 (Deep Space IR Observatory) jettisoning the non-reusable Granok booster. That was actually overkill for dV (not something I've found myself saying in JNSQ before.....) and I switched to a 2.5m launcher for future versions Coasting to a Pe between Eve & Kerbin Finally, my as-yet unnamed probe being tested on the pad - the fairing deployed without breaking either the camera or RTG, much to my surprise

Bob & Bill got lost driving around the desert space center - one of the JNSQ-KK space centers that is Then sent a few low tech designs into space - but neither reached orbit - while experimenting with the tech tree The Explorer probe almost made orbit, but I had modified the design to fit the available parts and the new one wasn't quite up to the job

Interesting, but my computer cringes at the part count of that!! I'm not even sure how that would work in stock, since the individual rockets are less than half the diameter of the smallest stock fuel tanks &engines

Between yesterday & today, did some more tinkering with Atlas-Moho in JNSQ - both a basic pod with retropack and a stretched "Moho" with small upper stage and science payload - then built an MPO-based probe to go to Moho. Basic Mk1 just after orbital insertion - a pair of sepratrons are enough to deorbit the spent Atlas after staging Atlas-Moho B - replaces the retropack with a short 1.25m upper stage. The "Stretched Moho" pod can now carry some science gear safely to orbit. I probably need to rearrange it to have the science bay directly under the pod rather than being jettisoned with the upper stage MPO on its way to Moho - after leaving Kerbin's SoI, a second maneuver put it on track to Moho. Eve is barely visible below the ion engine plume. At Kerbin's altitude, the Dawn can only run about 80% throttle, producing an exciting 0.05g's acceleration Near Moho, jettisoning the transfer stage. It's last maneuver, it was pulling about 0.08g's

That's essentially what the SmartParts mod does (for example triggering parachutes once you're below a preset altitude). Works pretty well and comes in handy, especially if you play with the "signal required for control" option. It would be nice to have that kind of functionality in BG - and by being more generic, working through the KAL it could provide even more options than SmartParts does

I've been under the impression it will be something along these lines for the colonies, with separate kerbonauts for your assorted craft (like they do now). I don't recall seeing any details from the actual developers though, just my assumption.

Technically yesterday, but I switched back to tinkering with some low tech designs and fiddling with rearranging a tech tree. Playing with the low tech designs was definitely more fun..... A Bumper aka Titov-Capella from the CNAR mod: Then came a Moho-Redstone. For JNSQ, I gave it a little help off the pad - although with some redesign work since this, it only takes 2 Mite's instead of 4 And a Moho-Atlas The FASA Atlas has enough dV to (barely) put a Mk1 pod into LKO in the JNSQ system. I added a pair of sepratrons to deorbit the Atlas body after orbital insertion to remain debris-free. I also used a pair of Spider's for the verniers instead of the FASA ones, but they barely have enough thrust to provide proper control (reaction wheels are turned down to 10% authority) so I need to switch back to the FASA ones. Retropack jettisoned after deorbit burn