McFarnsworth

Spent over half a day building a shuttle that could get to Minmus in a single stage. Finally got it to work, then slapped this thing together in 5 minutes because I was in a retro mood, ... and the damned thing does the same as the shuttle only better!

She's not quite steam powered, but she'll take you to orbit on the main booster, after which Sir can enjoy a leisurely cruise among the stars with the remaining 2kdV. ... don't come back though, those wings probably won't survive re-entry, ... or landing.

VTOL miner that fits in an mk3 cargo bay: Not quite happy with it yet though, the fuel budget is pretty small.

Built this: .. and yes I need the docking ports at the front and the back. It's part of something much bigger that I'm working on.

Banished the Kraken from my career save, so I get to keep playing KSP! Threw an asteroid out of the solar system. Incinerated my Moho return probe in Kerbin's atmosphere. I could've saved it in theory, but I couldn't be arsed to send an intercept ship. Arrived at Duna and Ike with my dual base, rover, satellite whatever thingy: Turns out you don't need a heatshield for aerobraking at Duna, and I'm unable to bring it back to Kerbin to use it there, so that was a bit of a waste. And I put too much fuel in the transfer stage, unless I was supposed to use it for something. Can't remember, it's been a while since I designed and launched this thing.

Whatever the hell this is apparently: That's supposed to be my manned Dres lander, but apparently the game didn't like it. This is what's left of it in the last quicksave, and it's completely gone in the persistent save. Between this, random parts overheating and blowing up, random contracts not completing despite meeting all the requirements, and the lousy performance in the latest versions I've pretty much had it with KSP for a while.

Started playing again after a few months. (sorry, was busy driving to Mongolia and back) ... and it showed. I forgot parachutes or docking ports on my Minmus return mission, so I had to send a klaw with parachutes to the return ship. And it only went downhill from there. I misjudged my Duna return mission so I stranded Jeb and some other kerbals in orbit of Duna. I sent a satellite and a base along with Bill and Bob to Eve orbit, but I forgot heatshields on both of them. Since they were both relying on aerobraking they didn't have enough fuel to circularize without it so I could either watch them burn or fling themselves into solar orbit. I've pretty much given up on that career save now, so I started a new one which is going much better. Just flung this towards Duna: It should fulfill 2 satellite, 2 base (Duna and Ike), 2 explore and 2 flyby contracts at once. Made the crew capsules into detachable fuel pods/rovers because it wasn't complicated enough already.

He did it again, but on a Munar orbital station. At least he managed a spectacular rescue himself by deorbiting the station over Kerbin, firing up the tiny engine to slow down as much as possible before crashing (because who puts parachutes or large engines on a space station?) and stepping off just before impact, because that totally works in real life. The entire station was vaporized, but Jeb walked away unharmed. I call that a good landing.

In my career Val has had to save Jeb's ass on three seperate occasions, so I'm very glad she's there. The first time he got stuck on the Mun with not enough fuel to get back so Val had to mount a rescue mission. The second time his rocket broke down on Minmus. The third time he snuck on board an unmanned station that was destined for an eternal solar orbit, so we had to get Jeb off before it left Kerbin orbit. I'm starting to think Jeb might be trying to get away from her. Overly Attached Val?

Finally got time to play the released game, so I missed 1.0 and got dropped straight into 1.0.2 Currently derping my way through career mode like a noob, but having fun so far. I can get to orbit with a small craft, but can't get anything bigger to space. I know why, but I made some uninformed techtree choices that make me unable to fix the problem anytime soon. (got no SAS or RCS, and no control surfaces) In sandbox mode however, I found that pretty much all my old rockets still work perfectly fine after adding a fairing. Seems like building everything somewhat realistically/aerodynamically in anticipation of the new aero system and assuming fairings were coming eventually paid off. Haven't tried anything with a LV-N yet, though I suspect I'll need to redesign a lot of my craft.

The Eiffel tower

Probably explode on the launch pad.

I've also launched a station that got used as a station and/or satellite around Kerbin, Minmus orbit, Mun orbit and landed it on the Mun eventually. Part of it decoupled in Kerbin orbit to be used as a rescue craft for some poor Kerbal. Another part of it decoupled to be used to fulfill a few satellite contracts. And it had some random parts stuck to it as well to complete a few part test contracts while I was at it. It's a very profitable way to play and it takes away some of the grind while you get to design and launch weird and fantastical craft.

Wondered if I could get to space without rocket fuel, and how hard I could abuse massless parts. Answers: Yes, you can get pretty much anywhere without rocket fuel. And yes, you can build a solar hat or whatever with massless parts.

CPU: Intel Xeon W3550 @ 3.06Ghz RAM: 12GB GPU: Nvidia Quadro 4000 HDD: 256GB SSD ... yes it's an old workstation that I basically got for free with some extra bits thrown in.

The mission is progressing slowly but surely. Currently in a parking orbit above Eve, still on the Kerbin ascent stage with exactly 500 dV left Couple of things I've noticed: - One reaction wheel is NOT enough for the entire ship. It takes about 1:30 to turn the ship around. No RCS or Vernor engines either. - I have no easy way to deorbit the lander. I can do it using the mothership, but hitting a decent landing location will be a complete crapshoot. So no showstoppers so far, but the hard part is obviously only just coming up. Edit: It can survive the landing. There is now a hole in the air where I punched it.

Relocated the Eifel tower for the Minmus lighthouse challenge.

You knew this was coming. A poorly aligned, shoddily built, wobbly Eiffel tower! Points: ShowEmWhosBoss 70.8m x 5 = 354

Built this thing for the single thruster challenge:

I've given it a go as well. I wanted to try it with an LV-T30, but I just couldn't get it to work. Not wanting to let my work go to waste, I used a Skipper engine, and slapped 3 of the stages I had made for the other engine on the side. Amazingly, it worked first time.

The Mechjeb calculation around stage 3 and 4 is a bit off due to a weird staging sequence at that point. It's calculating part of a previous stage (1 FL-T400 + LV-T30) as still attached dead weight, while at that point it should either still be burning its last drops of fuel or be dropped already. Stage 4 TWR is pretty much the same as the other stages, so I also have slightly more dV than MJ tells me. I haven't had time to fly the mission yet, but I have tested the thing on Kerbin now and everything seems to work as intended, so it's still mk1. The large decouplers are a bit more violent than expected for such a small craft but nothing broke, and I may not have enough chutes. And because the bottom stage is SRB only I have nothing to soften the blow. Do you fall faster (higher gravity) or slower (thicker atmosphere!) on Eve than you do on Kerbin?

I lied! It does have a use. ... depending on the validity of this attempt though. Scoring: Kerbin Orbit +20 Eve flyby +133.333... Plant flag +10 Recovered parts: no idea, but let's say 0.666... Total: 164 I could have gone for a Minmus/Mun landing too but since this entry is pretty sketchy as it is, I couldn't be bothered.

*ahem* You missed a part. Not sure how much use it is with the constant power drain and no easy way to replenish it, but it seemed worth mentioning. Edit: Nope, no use whatsoever. Keeping the power up requires more dV than you'd save by using it. Forget I said anything

According to the numbers my TWR on Eve might be a bit low (around 1.6 - 1.7 for pretty much every stage) so I don't think a sealevel ascent is possible. A little under 12k dV might not cut it either. I know the SRB's are heavy, but getting mass to Eve doesn't seem like the hard part, so might as well try to do something different. They're the first ascent stage, and there's a large reaction wheel embedded underneath there somewhere. In fact, the entire rocket works on that single reaction wheel and the torque from the pod. It handles like an oil tanker, not a bus. I was struggling while building the Kerbin launcher, then I noticed Mechjeb was giving me the TWR values for Eve. The whole thing is currently in Kerbin orbit awaiting a transfer window with 1500 dV left in the launch vehicle. Another 2000 dV in the transfer stage. And 3000 dV in each of the return craft. ... I may have massively overbuilt everything except the Eve lifter (the important bit)

Right, let's give this thing a go, shall we. Yes that's mk1. Apart from the ladder, I've tested nothing. So wish Jeb luck! It even looks rocket-y!