What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Liowen]

Late to the party, as I had to finish up some things in my old .23 save before I mustered the courage to port it over to .23.5 today.

At first I missed some mods (parts that is) to load all my crafts. After that was remedied, no asteroids appeared. Just by copying over my save once more and giving it another try I ended up with this - more than half of them are impactors:

Oddly enough my saves had asteroids in them and all seems ok so far from what I have done. I have not tried my career save yet though, I need to work on that tomorrow I think. Although I have been busy making rock asteroid grabbers for the last few nights, and putting colored lights on them (oddly enough even with all the new parts I find the color changeable lights to be my favorite think thus far.).

[Tw1]

Finally updated. After copying across my main save, and checking everything was Ok, I made this.

A Tintin rocket.

It had clipped in LV-N's and might have worked if I'd remembered to raise my periapsis out of the atmosphere before doing my transfer burn...

I also took my Eve Explorer's Kerbin based duplicate on a drive around the KSC to do some tests.

[CaptainKipard]

And finally...

Fictional beings rarely play on my emotions, but that made me sad.

I've decided I'll never kill a Kerbal again. It should be very hard since I've disabled quicksaving in my current career.

[zeel]

I built a space arm:

Big flexible arm for grabbing, moving, and all around recreation. Haven't put one in space yet, but when I do it will be epic.

[Superfluous J]

I built a space arm:

Big flexible arm for grabbing, moving, and all around recreation. Haven't put one in space yet, but when I do it will be epic.

That's an interesting idea. How did you construct it on the launch pad, and with the claws closed? And do you have fuel on each stage? And a probe core?

Hmmmm. Ideas ideas.

[Jouni]

After all kinds of trouble, I finally managed to complete a test launch of my heavy asteroid tug. I'm going to call it the Asteroid Wheel, as it has a tendency to rotate faster and faster, as it climbs into orbit.

Now I'm ready to handle Class E asteroids.

[Xacktar]

Added some flair to my new piece in the park.

[Aragosnat]

Nice posts before mine. Anyways before 1 am my time I was able to capture my first wild roid in my career start:

Sadly the E? class roid was a a pain to turn and found out dispite having a lot of reaction wheels my craft wabbled like mad and when I time warped (never do if you wobble like no tomorrow after gently tapping it once with SAS on or off) the end place where the decopler was blew apart. Was still able to capture and keep it in Kerbin's SOI. Sadly Bill is on a long journy as the rescue ship needs to wait till it can get a decent capture, thing has 4 claws to see if it can stabilize the roid better.

Some time around 9:30 pm my time again (still is today 10pm) I was able to capture a class A roid with Jeb:

Was so easy to turn around and get a decent capture same craft as the one Bill had since Jeb was the first one out. I'm going to guess here. One Claw for Class A and B (Need to capture one) class roids class C and D roids might need 3 (working on getting a C), class E needs more then one as one lack stability as it is like waving around a long thin hot dog that you will know it is going to brake sooner or later.

[problemecium]

Today I cleared some more of the tech tree and unlocked some much-needed docking ports and scientific instruments. Unfortunately I forgot that the 1-meter circular probe core (a staple in most of my designs) doesn't get unlocked till the end of the tree, which is currently hampering my efforts to build non-derp ships. I was, however, able to send an odd mini-mothership to Minmus. No pictures (it isn't that awesome to begin with), but it consists of a lab / living space in the main chunk and a lander attached on the end - but as I forgot to put any control modules on the main body it's rather like a barge or overcomplicated space tent. But that still works.

[zeel]

That's an interesting idea. How did you construct it on the launch pad, and with the claws closed? And do you have fuel on each stage? And a probe core?

Hmmmm. Ideas ideas.

I posted a thread about it: The Space Arm - Flexible connection system using the grabber!

It's built by holding a bunch of segments just above each other (what that vertical part is for) and using mini docking ports to uncouple them all at once so they fall on each other.

[RexKramer]

I really appreciate the fact that Ion engines are now useable, without waiting hours for painfully long burns. After swearing I would never toy with Ion ships again, I made one to see how they work in .23.5.

I made a ship with a small probe core, 4 'butter dish' xenon tanks, an ion engine, small battery, couple of short girders, and 8 1X6 solar arrays (not the really big ones..) As I didn't have high hopes for the ion-powered ship, I only put on two sensors: a temperature probe and a negative gravioli detector. Wish I had put more science on it, this thing had quite a journey!

From Kerbin orbit, I did a pass of Mun and Minimus.

Next, I did a fly-by of Duna. I missed Ike, was just trying to see how far it would get.

After Duna, I did a fly-by of Dres. Collecting science all the way.

Next I did a pass by Jool. Decided to try to aerobrake and stay in the Jool SOI for a bit. Remembered to stow the solar panels! (I usually forget to do that..) After a successful aerobrake at Jool, I explored the Jool system.

I managed to do low passes at all 5 moons: Laythe, Vall, Tylo, Bop, and finally Pol. Still collecting science. (Actually, not a low pass at Laythe, I stayed out of the atmosphere..)

At Pol, I figured the ship had served it's purpose, so I decided to attempt a landing on Pol. Success! More science..

Still had over half of the xenon fuel, so departed Pol, left the Jool SOI, and headed for an encounter with Eeloo. Whizzed by Eeloo at a steep angle, but still managed a 10KM altitude pass. Mission over? Not yet.

I still had plenty of fuel, so I sun-dove, got some more science from that. By tweaking my course while diving, I was able to generate a Kerbin encounter too!

To top things off, I attempted to aerobrake at Kerbin, and be captured in my home SOI. Sadly, I misjudged, and ended up crashing on one of the polar caps of Kerbin. The ion engine was not even close to having enough thrust to slow the final descent, especially since I had the solar panels stowed again.

The final high-point of the mission was after the ship slammed into Kerbin's ice cap. The impact destroyed about 75% of the ship, but a small piece remained: 2 xenon tanks and....the Probe Core! I laughed when I was able to 'recover' the 'landed' vessel, and get awarded 120 more science for successful recovery of a vessel from the surface of Pol.

A note on solar panels: I seriously underestimated the quantity needed. The configuration I made was such that I could only get 4 1X6 arrays facing the sun at once. This was adequate at Kerbin, but steadily became less effective the further out the ship got. At Jool I was able to use maybe 40% ion thrust, at Eeloo it was down to about 25% ion thrust before batteries started draining. Also wish I had added a seismometer and maybe accelerometer, as landings on the really tiny moons are possible with ion ships.

[Alymon]

Here are some of the things I've done since my last post...

- I built my first stable plane (image)!

- I had my first Moho encounter! Unfortunately, I ran out of fuel before I could get a stable orbit (image).

- I built a large Munar Lander with a command module and separate lander module (image). This was my first attempt to have a separate landing module and do a complete landing, return to orbit, rendezvous and dock. I think I have the docking/rendezvous thing finally down as I've now made multiple trips with this ship to both the Mun and Minmus and been successful (image).

- No image of this one, but I built my first rover and launch system to get it to Mun. Everything went well except one small problem. I landed on Mun with the rover in position. I unconnected the dock for it and everything looked out. Then it started to roll before I could transfer my Kerbal to it. It picked up speed real fast. I chased after it with my jetpack, but when trying to stop it, I accidentally managed to cause it to explode into a ton of pieces. My Kerbal headed back to the lander and departed home.

- And in sad news, had my first career death. During my rover mission, on the return home I realized my command module had room for 1, and I had brought 3 up (2 in a science lab). Unfortunately, no parachutes on the lab or other parts. During the descent after hitting the atmosphere I decided to try EVA with one in the lab to see if I could climb to the command module and ride the outside down. Apparently I was going too fast because he immediately launched off the ship and was lost forever. It was after that I realized I could probably slow it down with the remaining engines and then deploy the parachutes, transfer the last lab guy at a slower speed, then disconnect it. Apparently I had enough fuel left to slow it down for a safe landing of the full ship. I could've just left the first guy in the lab and he would've been fine. 3 went up, only 2 returned.

[MortalDanger]

Ugh, what a day.

I attempted my first ever interplanetary transfer, complete with aerobraking!

I went to Eve and managed to send 6 ships on the way. Unfortunately, only 3 made it and two were useless. I downloaded ScanSat for something more to do so I sent two probes to Eve. I successfully put one in polar orbit with lots and lots of aerobraking, but I forgot one of the parts. It's creating data, but can't read it. During a save/load mishap, I didn't check to make sure I made all the capture burns on my crafts and ended up missing the other probe, so it's circling the sun right now waiting for its next window.

Then, for whatever reason, two of my landers bugged out. They were set on a path to Eve, then I quit the game and when I opened it back up, they were just falling straight back to Kerbin. Something went wrong there.

My station did finally make it to orbit! Luckily before my window closed I noticed I forgot two kerbals for the Science Module and modified one of my landers to send Bill, dock, drop him off, then land on Eve for science. I did that.

Then I landed the lander, the only one that made it, did science, and noticed I forgot a dadgum ANTENNA. UGH! Alf+F4, see ya tomorrow.

[Xacktar]

Finished up playing with a jet engine bulldozer. It is one of my most favorite builds now.

[Felsmak]

I recreated my old Kerpollo launcher with Procedural Fairings and headed out to the Mun again. It's quite difficult to fly as it uses the same stage for getting into orbit and moving on towards the Mun, but it works!

[MortalDanger]

Finished up playing with a jet engine bulldozer. It is one of my most favorite builds now.

http://youtu.be/GccrTSVGPx0

Hahahahahaha.

[kola2DONO]

Got a space station destroyed by an asteroid, lost jebediah in a huge explosion due to a booster getting hit by my own debris.

You know, just normal stupid stuff.

[Gojira]

Landed and returned from Gilly.

[Hyomoto]

Launched the cheapest manned mission to a passing asteroid I could. Not to capture it, just to land on it. Good times, good times. Squad needs to find a way to let us plant flags on them

[ExplodingRocketShips]

I built an SSTO expecting for it to go into Kerbin Orbit... That ended up in solar orbit o.o

[Geschosskopf]

I used Professor Phineas Kerbenstein's Wondrous Vertical Propulsion to get to Mun (and back)

[Liowen]

Launched the cheapest manned mission to a passing asteroid I could. Not to capture it, just to land on it. Good times, good times. Squad needs to find a way to let us plant flags on them

That was the first thing I tried to do, but then I was sad when the option was not there. I wonder if I could plant a flag on a claw on Mun and then take that to the asteroid??That would be AWESOME!

[Alymon]

Launched the cheapest manned mission to a passing asteroid I could. Not to capture it, just to land on it. Good times, good times. Squad needs to find a way to let us plant flags on them

What about just clamping a claw to it with a part that has a flag decal? You could then set the object to the flag icon in the tracking station.

[Hyomoto]

That was the first thing I tried to do, but then I was sad when the option was not there. I wonder if I could plant a flag on a claw on Mun and then take that to the asteroid??That would be AWESOME!

YES YES YES. DO IT!

While everyone wants to talk about the new 3.75m parts, let's show some love for the S1! I flew this bad boy out to Minmus, landed and returned to Kerbin with about half a tank of fuel to spare!

Edited April 7, 2014 by Hyomoto

[Commissar]

updated all my mods, thinking of starting a new sandbox save, many mods have been installed and removed in my current one... and with the capability to launch craft from orbit, thanks to IL, all my craft designs will change... all i'll need to send from KSC is a station, freighters to carry LFO and RocketParts to orbit, and a crew transport...

EDIT: i started a new save.

first thing I did, was start on my freighter, and decided to do a comparitive burn time test between the new boosters, and the kosmos 5m engine with the 12m fuel tanks and insterstage. broke free of the EIGHT rocket holders, after the boosters broke off the decouplers.

I think I just achieved my fastest ascent yet, as it only took about 30 seconds to reach space, on a tilted track....

Edited April 7, 2014 by Commissar
this is why struts were invented