Soda Popinski

That's a good point. They're learning a lot about how to build reusable rockets right now. One thing I recall reading was the planned switch on the grid fins from aluminum to titanium. The increased up front cost leads to long terms savings, as they won't need to replace them as often. I'm guessing we'll see these changes, along with many others, in the Rocket Formerly Known as Block 5, the final version of Falcon 9,

I had no idea the scale of the re-entry burn plume. I kept thinking that looks like one of my KSP launch failures.

Klondike Bars, kale, ketchup, kidney beans, kimchi, kiwis, Kashi and anything kosher really.

Another day, another landing script crash. At least there is symmetry.

Impressive. Most impressive. I've only tried my hand once at making a sci-fi replica, but it was a Babylon 5 Earthforce ship, so the original design had a basis in Newtonian physics, so I think it was a bit easier. The Interceptor's center of thrust doesn't look aligned with its CoM. Does it fly OK? For the LAAT Gunship, you may try installing Kerbal Foundries Repulsors (when it gets updated). I used them years ago on my Pod Racer (not technically a replica). Welcome to the forums!

Neat idea! Every Career game I play, I tend to make a Jet Assisted rocket, but I've never taken them off from the runway. First time I thought about this was in 0.23, as you can see with the old parts. Back then, intakes sucked (literally), so I needed to really spam them. This lifter handled 30t.

I'm on a bit of a break, but I'm still doing my most ridiculous rescue mission. I put a lander on Tylo, exhausting all the fuel, and thought I could land my ISRU rig. Turns out I couldn't. So I built this to get to Tylo ASAP: First link on my sig to see the Cinematic Mission Report. I tried to make it funny.

Know this would suck up my gaming time from my 0.235 rescue mission, I've started playing 1.2, and doing it with kOS to boot. R&D has just started studies on mixed cycle engine, and fuselages larger than Mk2. The latest production jet engine, the J-X4 "Whiplash" Turbo Ramjet has allowed the creation of a more efficient Single Stage to Orbit Spaceplane than The Reliant (powered by the "Panther" and "Reliant" engines). This along with the new Shock Cone intake lead to the design and production of the 3rd SSTO model, with the ability to accelerate at higher altitudes. In order to keep the CoM somewhat centered after the majority of the propellant mass was used up, the Whiplash engines were placed on the wingtips, as far forwards as possible. This gave the craft a distinctive shape, leading to the name, "The Diamond." Also, the Design Department was sick of SR-71 knock-offs. After many launch "simulations," a good ascent profile was developed for The Diamond. This was programmed into a kOS sequencer, and consisted of 10 steps, including a drop in altitude to accelerate past 400 m/s to "jumpstart" the Whiplash. The SSTO was able to achieve an 80km orbit with about 500 m/s delta-V to spare or 150km with 380 m/s. A new de-orbit program was created, and 2 launches were performed with orbital altitudes of 80km, and 150km (to match the Curie Space Station). The Automated Landing Program originally made for The Reliant was used successfully both times resulting in safe landings at KSC. (vaguely sung to the tune of "The Bonnie Ship the Diamond" made popular by The Corries, though I prefer the Gaelic Storm version). The Diamond's a spaceship me lads, To orbit straight she's boun', At KSC she is all garnished with auto-struts aroun' Jebediah gives the order, To orbit far and wide, Where the Sun it oft'n sets me lads, And darkness dims the sky And it's cheer up me lads, ne'r yer struts be breakin' For the Bonnie Ship The Diamond goes a fishin' for kraken! (sorry, out of lyrics. Also, got a bit of help from /u/morpheus1229 on that last bit on the chorus) After the two shake-down cruises, The Diamond's first real mission came up. To prepare for the first landing on Minmus, Gene wants to bring down veteran Scientist and Engineer Bill and Bob from Curie Orbital Akademy and Gas Station. Also, we need one other redshirt. To help finance this operation, a Tourist Contract was accepted for an Orbital Adventure. (that's The Defiant attached in this older photo) En route to the station, Jebediah is tasked to capture an empty capsule or cabin, which will be converted to a re-entry pod at Curie. The Diamond seats 2 in the cockpit, and 2 in the cargo hold. With the addition of the re-entry pod, there's enough space for everyone that needs to go planet-side. And to get one more thing in, a "Rescue a Part" mission was also accepted. Previous attempts to KLAW the PAL Humpback Truss with the standard sized KLAW were unsuccessful. Mission Control hopes the new "Baby KLAW" (Tweakscale) will have better luck. That totals 5 Mission Objectives Retrieve 3 kerbals from Curie Orbital Akademy and Gas Station Retrieve an empty pod from Kerbin Orbit and bring to Curie Station Release the converted pod for re-entry (Bill thrown in there) Give a Tourist an orbital adventure Rescue a module from Kerbin Orbit The two orbital retrieval missions will require a number of Hohmann Transfers, using up precious fuel. The plan was to do a partial refuel at Curie. As you can see, all mission objectives were accomplished! Looks like the Landing Script couldn't stick the landing. I suspect with manually pumping fuel in, and after the Part Rescue, too little fuel was left, compared to the previous successful landing runs. This lead to some instability, which fed into the ascent/descent PID Loop in the landing program, causing pitching oscillations. Eventually the craft did a back-flip, one engine flamed out, leading to an accelerating upside-down flat spin. This actually slowed the fall down, likely due to the left generated (like Helicopter?). Descent speed was less than 50 m/s until fuel ran out near the ground. Most of the expensive parts survived, and they made it within 35 km of KSC. Val likes to point out she did better in her SSTO crash landing from Orbit.

Looks familiar. Still flying it in my 0.235 savegame. First useful SSTO I built. This was before lifting fuselages were a thing, I believe.

PSA: When messing with robotics, don't de-couple when things are clipping. The cabin originally fit when I captured it. After adding the de-orbit hardware, not so much. And I hit the wrong Action Group, accidentally releasing it while still in the cargo bay. Do note, during the rapid unplanned disassembly, two kerbals were ejected from their Command Chairs.

I took some advice, and moved the cockpit back...way back. This is the Bonnie Ship The Diamond. What you're seeing is a fully automated (kOS) take-off. It can also do a fully automated de-orbit and landing (twice so far), landing...runway adjacent. I'll post that when I get good light on its next mission. Part of my inspiration was to make an SSTO that doesn't look like an SR-71, like most of my SSTOs. Someone pointed out, instead it looks like a Skylon. Edit: I think I need to work on the automated EDL, or at least check my fuel balance better. This was the first "real mission" for The Bonnie Ship The Diamond. The 2 previous successful landings were launch to orbit and de-orbit tests. This time, I captured a capsule to re-use as a re-entry pod, and "rescued" and object for a contract. I also had a tourist in the cockpit, and ferried down Bill and Bob from my space station.

Cubic Octagonal Struts. I've used them for everything from making anything radially attached to making skids out of them. Need to make a weird shaped structure? Good for that too!

Why not just change the default keys? Before getting back into KSP, I was playing Elite: Dangerous for a year and a half (at least). Since that has translational controls too, I just switched my KSP controls to match what I was use to. I should note, I play with a HOTAS. Same mini-joystick to translate, rudders for Yaw, stick for pitch/roll and even the same buttons for lights, gears, and brakes. Makes it much easier switching back and forth.

Curie Station has gotten even bigger. It's getting kind of crowded. Got 2 tankers docked, 2 nuklear tugs, 1 RCS tug, 1 SSTO, and a new Space Station en route to Mun (picking up personnel). I also brought up more "re-entry kits" to de-orbit debris / empty capsules / rescued capsules. The Munar Bus passenger trailer is connected at the end, as I'm going to use the Bus drive section to haul the new Henrietta Lacks Munar Orbital Laboratory out. I plan to add a truss with more radiators. For now I can't run the PDU 100% as it gets too hot. I'll likely add solar panels and batteries to the truss, so I can cover all my power needs via solar.

Quite the blast from the past. Technically, I'm still playing this save-game. It's the same one I'm currently doing a big rescue mission for. Check my sig to see the mission report / cinematic if you like seeing my builds. I'm taking a little break right now. You might get a kick out of my current space station in 1.2. The main station consists of an MSL, Hitchhiker, MKS Akaedemy, MKS Power Unit, various life support parts. Currently there's a crappy SSTO attached, 2 nuklear tugs, an RCS tug, 2 tankers, and the new Munar orbital station (contract), docked to pick up personnel and get a tug to Munar orbit.

Instead of learning to land my horrible, horrible SSTO, I've decided to make an autopilot landing script in kOS. Many, many hours later of debugging (~600 lines), and tuning PID Loops that all interact (speed/throttle, ascent/descent, and hold altitude), I finally got something that heads back towards KSC. I'm not even going to show you when I accidentally set the landing zone to 70 meters below sea level (I get those -/+ signs mixed up a lot).

Thanks for the advice. I've since unlocked a few more super-sonic parts. Great idea with placing the cockpit back. I actually did that with Science Hot Rod. I went with the MkII as I needed the cargo hold to put in command chairs for rescues.

Finally unlocked the Whiplash in my current game. Until I get a chance to build a new SSTO, here's what I've got (barely) in orbit using the Panther. I have yet to land it successfully (nobody killed). I can get it to 72 x 72km with about 30m/s delta-V left. And that's using a complicated 10 step ascent sequencer I wrote in kOS. Here's an earlier version, where I couldn't even get it off the runway. I've got it docked to my space-station. The SSTO needed a boost from a tanker to get up to this altitude.

Showing my age, but I had that toy.

So right now, I've got the SSTO berthed (on top), 2 fuel tankers with those great looking (high part count) inflatable tanks (replace when I unlock Mk. III fuselage), the Heisenberg Nuklear Tug below, and half of the Bohr Munar Bus (passenger trailer / aka "Short Bus") on the left. Neat animation of launching the MKS Akademy module along with a truss with attached de-orbit pods. Here's more detail on the construction. Edit: It's getting kind of crowded. Got 2 tankers docked, 2 nuklear tugs, 1 RCS tug, 1 SSTO, and a new Space Station en route to Mun (picking up personnel). Edit 5-5-17: Call it a Kraken attack, or maybe it was Valentine's Day on Kerbin...

Curie Orbital Akademy and Gas Station has taken between 3 to 6 launches, thus far depending on how you count. I'm learning / messing with MKS, hence the akademy module, and power distribution module. The original launch consisted of an MSL and Hitchhiker Can as a habitat, along with a set of Nom-o-Matics. While launching the second module of the Ada Lovelace Munar Kolony, I stopped by Curie to grab a couple of scientists, and also brought along a small truss with an inflatable mini-habitat, and the newly invented Docking Ports (not Jrs). I attached it with the Jr. Port on board. This truss also had an antenna, as I sort of forgot one on the original launch. Having accepted a contract to rescue some kerbals, I figured I could bring them down on my crappy SSTO which I have yet to successfully land. Crappy SSTO, "Reliant" I found after orbiting it at 72km, I didn't have the delta-V to get it up to 150km, where Curie lives. I was already getting ready to launch my first tanker, and figured I could rendezvous and refuel it en route. The tanker launch vehicle had extra lift capacity, so I included another Truss segment along with 4 de-orbit pods. The Truss had 4 docking ports around the middle. Turns out, my SSTO docking port was right at about the CoM, so instead of refueling it, I just attached it to the tanker's front docking port, and pushed it up to Curie. At that point, I realized I couldn't dock the SSTO to the truss docking ports, because there wasn't enough room. So I attached it to the end of the truss for now, with plans to bring up docking tubes in a later launch. On the 2nd tanker launch, I included hardware to de-orbit any other capsules I get on rescues (heat-shield, probe core + batteries, parachutes, and Konstruction Docking Port Jrs). The next big construction launch was to send up the MKS Akademy and required Power Distribution Unit (turned out to be overkill). This would be used to train up Kolonists for the Ada Lovelace Munar station and future Minmus kolony. I included 4 docking tubes along with an RCS tug to help put them in place and with future berthing operations. Here's an image before I de-orbited the last engine stage. I realized later I should have disassembled them for MKS parts, but oh well. So right now, I've got the SSTO berthed (on top), 2 fuel tankers with those great looking (high part count) inflatable tanks (replace when I unlock Mk. III fuselage), the Heisenberg Nuklear Tug below, and half of the Bohr Munar Bus (passenger trailer / aka "Short Bus") on the left. The drive section of the Bohr is picking up an empty 2 kerbal passenger compartment from a previous rescue, which I'll convert into a de-orbit vehicle for a tourist and rescuee. This was necessary, as I originally planned to bring them down on the SSTO in the lawn chairs in the cargo hold, but realized the tourist can't EVA to it. At this point, I realized I can't run the PDU for too long, while in sun, as the heat build up is too high. I included Konstruction Ports on the PDU with plans to attach trusses with Gigantor Panels once I unlock them to take the strain off the nuklear reactor. That should help make the fuel last longer. With the heat issues, I'll also throw on some more radiators.

Them Dukes! Them Dukes!

Here's my Rocker-Bogie suspension based rover. The system is the type used on the JPL Mars rovers. Ground tests. Deploying on the Mun After a 300km drive, the joints look a bit janky, but I was still able to use it as a bulldozer. Probably not so good for it.

This is a triumph. I'm making a note here.

Until I unlock more stuff in Roverdude's Modular Kolonization System, this is my completed station, "Curie Orbital Akademy & Gas Station." Main points Mobile Processing Lab to convert that data into science and life support recycling Hitchhiker habitat to for habitat/life support 2 attached Liquid Fuel Tankers (using MKS inflatable tanks, since I haven't unlocked the Mk. III parts yet Inflatable Habitat for more hab/life support Newly attached set of trusses with 8 de-orbit pods and an RCS tug Tundra Akademy to train up the kerbonauts Tundra Power Distribution Unit with nuclear fuel / waste storage Here's a clip of bringing up those last few parts. I've currently got a pathetic SSTO attached, which couldn't even make it to this 150km orbit. I've only unlocked up to the Panther, and could get it barely to 72km in orbit. Docked it with one of the tankers which brought it the rest of the way. Here's a still to get a closer look. Note, I hadn't jettisoned the booster attached to the Akademy module.