What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Taki117]

I know this is small potatoes to a lot of you, but I just landed on the Mun about 16 minutes ago and returned successfully!!! I finally got to that bastage with enough fuel to get home!

Congrats! Your first Mun Landing is a very important step.

[problemecium]

Just another day of orbital construction for Kerbatar 2 - I've joined the two main sections and only need to add one more fuel tank and engine to complete it. Also I've found that Astronomer's Visual Pack for EnvironmentalVisualEnhancements includes a thick cloud of dust all over the surface of Minmus. Not sure if intentional, but cool either way.

No pics because I don't wanna clutter the thread until I have something truly pic-worthy. Stay tuned for pics of the finished Kerbatar 2.

[Overfloater]

I completed my first proper Eve landing. My previous attempt was in 0.23, but back then I made some mistakes, and the pilot had to abandon ship and circularize with his jetpack.

http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/jltsiren/ksp/eve_ship_7.jpeg

This time I had seven kerbals and a lander that was designed for sea level landings. Because the landing site was at 2100 m, the lander was really an overkill.

http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/jltsiren/ksp/eve_fireworks_1.jpeg

http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/jltsiren/ksp/eve_fireworks_2.jpeg

http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/jltsiren/ksp/eve_fireworks_3.jpeg

http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/jltsiren/ksp/eve_ascent_1.jpeg

http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/jltsiren/ksp/eve_ascent_2.jpeg

http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/jltsiren/ksp/eve_ascent_3.jpeg

http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/jltsiren/ksp/eve_ascent_4.jpeg

I didn't care about terminal velocity too much. The first attempt ended in a 130 km orbit, with over 1000 m/s remaining.

Finally, SOMEONE makes a more-than-one man Eve lander!!!

[KerbMav]

Refiddled my Moho encounter for a probe waiting in orbit.

Launched a Jool ion probe and found a transfer window a bit in the future.

(Updated Protractor with a community patch to show Kerbal time - KAC is giving me unreliable information lately.)

Built a plane to fly to Kerbin's anomalies - crashed on runway during takeoff ... postponed ...

Made four basic designs for an interplanetary ship capable of doing a big tour (of anomaly sites only) - not that easy to get it the way I want it to be and also comply to the mission parameters:

- Kethane refueling for the nuclear engines (modded in my game to burn only Kethane)

- one-stage lander capable of going to every planet/moon (optional booster stage for big ones/atmospheres)

- carrying at least three kerbonauts (empty space in a hitchhiker required due to the length of the mission)

- capable of delivering mapping satellites where needed

- modular to use the cockpit as landing pod by rearranging itself in orbit leaving drive stage, crew compartments and laboratory behind

- lander has to be able to mine Kethane, convert it to fuel for itself and lift enough Kethane for the next part of the voyage

Contingency: Prepare to launch refueling drones at key locations

Alternatively: Scrap mining for refueling drones at every planet

[problemecium]

I stopped playing for the day and then got bored and un-stopped. Whereupon I did a "simulation" of my planned Duna mission and discovered some very useful facts:

One, parachutes suck on Duna. Its atmosphere is a lot more tenuous than I had thought (this was actually my first Duna landing).

Two, getting back to space from Duna is way easier than I'd thought, as made obvious to me when I got my lander (which I had designed for Mun landings) back into orbit with a mere 35 units of fuel expended.

[Cirocco]

Started building my colony ship, The Argo. Capable of interplanetary flight, transporting 32 kerbals at once to relieve an entire colony worth of crew. It also sports a science lab and 9 science probes: 3 atmospheric ones and 6 non-atmospheric ones, as well as 32 escape pods to evacuate all hands should something go catastrophically wrong and the ship needs to be evacuated. It's a 1032 ton piece of lag and wobble with God only knows how many parts, and I haven't even added everything I want to (She needs a lander/ferry to get kerbals to and from planetside bases).

The evac pods (each consists of a mk1 lander can, a small fuel tank + engine and an RTG) are more to satisfy my own need for a bit of realism since individual systems in KSP will never fail and if something REALLY goes wrong, it's unlikely you'll have time to evacuate all hands before the entire ship goes boom, but I like them being there. Too bad they add over 100 extra parts and cause a crapton of lag...

So yeah, colony ship is almost done. Now if only I had a colony to go to.... I may have gotten my priorities a little mixed up...

[Rainbowtrout]

Attempting to land on the Mun, and find a place to set up my testing bay for low-G vehicles.

[Superfluous J]

I did a bunch of testing of my "Mohollo" ship, whose name breaks the pattern set by Kerpollo, Gilpollo, Ikepollo, Drepollo, and Eelpollo. But I just like the sound of Mohollo.

It only has one solar panel that I keep accidentally breaking off in testing. So should be fun.

[TrooperCooper]

Yesterday I created a mess. Upon releasing a ship from its launcher, I had to realize that I must have had the stages messed up and the whole lifter vessel desintegrated into many pieces right at my 100 km orbit around Kerbin.

So I designed this little bugger to go at the debries and clean up.

Ugh, docking is one thing. But catching large debries that spin and rotate like crazy is a different story. I think it took me like an hour just to catch this one piece, which was then brought to a lower orbit to dive into the atmosphere at some point.

I decided to take it one step further and start my first asteroid redirect mission. Pic below was taken shortly after take off as the launch boosters came off. Lotsa fireworks but thats normal.

After reaching the orbit, the lifter accelerated the package on a rendezvous course to meet up with the targeted asteroid in interplanetary space, since I intended to avoid a stressing intercept maneuver within Kerbins neighborhood.

It took several weeks to get out there and meet up with the target.

But finally contact was made and the redirector managed to grab the B-class rock, which was much bigger than what I had expected.

With some gentle maneuvering, the asteroid was put on a course that would drag him into Kerbins atmosphere.

One month later, the mission entered its final stage. As the package came down on Kerbin with an insane speed, the now unnecessary equipment was jetted away.

Firestorm raining down on the planet...

I was worried that my chutes wouldnt be able to hold this big rock, as I anticipated a much smaller asteroid. But the chutes stayed intact, and even though the thing was coming down a little fast with 10.7 meters per second, it did not brake down. Though it did land in the water.

And the reward for the mission. Is that really it? Maybe our scientists dont like wet asteroids. Or I need to do something different with it. I probably should have watched a tutorial before doing this mission.

Well then, the next mission will be to not just crash the asteroid into Kerbins atmosphere at a random location, but to get it into a controlled orbit and then maybe bring it down savely. For this I have a bigger and more powerfull machine on the drawingboard. Will see how it goes...

[cantab]

Asteroid science is a bit weird at the moment. A Kerbal can take a surface sample from one, and can take a new surface sample for every situation it's in. The normal science multipliers apply, so you'll get more points for sampling it in solar orbit than in Kerbin orbit (which is sensible for game balance at least), which in turn gives more points than for sampling when it's landed on Kerbin (which is I suppose also sensible since by then you've contaminated it, but is a bit of a low reward for the effort).

Put one in orbit around somewhere like Minmus or Duna, then land it, and you'll get an even bigger slice of science.

[brdavis]

Playing Career in 0.23.5, had number of firsts. First Duna landing (& return) with leg room (at least two seats for every Kerbal for those long, dull, interplanetary voyages; even included some extra snacks by attaching KAS containers to the transfer stage), and simultaneously first robotic one-way Eeloo mission (with Kethan scanner). Bill and Bob learned a lot, including what happens during Duna ascent when one side runs out of fuel first, how to get to low Duna orbit on RCS, and docking, not to mention the first use of AlexMoon's calculator (I've been doing them all by hand… this has probably switched me). Two simultaneous missions is… interesting. Bill & Bob landed near the mouth of a canyon system, with Ike just hovering over the horizon, and set up a nice DSEP (Duna Surface Experiment Package) as well as took a couple of multi-kilometer hikes. Found some very odd, interesting boulders too…

Landing site with Ike over the horizon, and the KAS-constructed DSEP in the right foreground. They made sure the drop tanks weren't going to pulverize it on ascent too.

Bob encounters a rather interesting rock

(First time linking images in, let's see if that works)

[cantab]

So that's where the Magic Boulder got to!

[TrooperCooper]

Asteroid science is a bit weird at the moment. A Kerbal can take a surface sample from one, and can take a new surface sample for every situation it's in. The normal science multipliers apply, so you'll get more points for sampling it in solar orbit than in Kerbin orbit (which is sensible for game balance at least), which in turn gives more points than for sampling when it's landed on Kerbin (which is I suppose also sensible since by then you've contaminated it, but is a bit of a low reward for the effort).

Put one in orbit around somewhere like Minmus or Duna, then land it, and you'll get an even bigger slice of science.

Very helpfull info. Thanks for that!

[brdavis]

So that's where the Magic Boulder got to!

I had serious thoughts of photoshopping little glowing lines on it, but the coincidence of the floating boulder coupled with the view of Ike… no, KSP reality was better.

[corvustech]

My aerospace efforts without landing gears unlocked took a turn for the worse as my Mariposa I I I science jet choked out of air 5000m below the operational ceiling of the previous Mariposa flights. The plane tumbled and made noises like it was being hit by something so I triggered chutes.

Once the nose leveled out in the splash down the cockpit disconnected but the engines gasped in that fresh sea air and roared to life. The thrust and shape of the plane body made it impossible to roll the cockpit out if the way-Jeb was stuck on a boat he couldn't stop for almost an hour before he finally was pushed ashore and the rest of the plane exploded against the beach.

[bawr]

Playing in Career Mode, I launched a Münar landing viechle with Jeb. Pretty uneventful, except for some plot twists:

My first ever manned trip to the Mün!

Halfway there I realised I just don't have enough ÃŽâ€v to even break before landing.

Well, whatever, doing my first manned fly-by instead - grab that EVA, Jeb!

Done, I guess we can plan a reentry burn... what, what, there's another craft at the KSC?

Jeb is piloting the KSC craft? Then who is... BILL!? It was Bill all along? Oh snap.

I'm so proud of him, didn't even blink through the whole flight. Freaking Bill, man. My new favourite Kerbal, bar none.

Ended up doing a Minmus fly-by as well, also my first. Had some spare fuel for the last-minute reentry breaking, too.

Freaking Bill, man.

[BlackAdder128]

After many tries, I recently landed on Duna and returned home safely with 1 kerbal and several experiments. I had done a number of mun landers, but most of those did not use Nuclear engines to land, rely on drogue parachutes, use bileratal rather than trilateral symmetry, etc. I was trying to copy a video that used a fairly minimal rocket, and I discovered a lot of "small" errors that cause landers to tip over or fall apart even at low landing speed (1.2 m/s or so).

After finally getting the rock and the piloting right, I took a break to retrieve and asteroid and put my first Rover on the mun near my science processing base.

[Concentric]

Planning a Jool mission - decided to extend my Laythe mission into a multi-moon mission. Not a Jool-5, though: I don't feel ready to take on Tylo yet.

I already have a Laythe Lander design from RedKing's refinement testing phase, which is capable of a Kerbin landing and ascent back to orbit. I can also fit the capsule with the ability to perform an ion landing, or possibly just bring a separate ion lander to do Pol and Bop. So, today I decided to work on a transfer stage and Vall.

The first version of the transfer stage was probably far too big to launch full, and I didn't at the time try launching it empty. At any rate, the Kerbodyne lifter rocket I built was unable to get it out of the atmosphere. So I used an abort system and returned the capsule to the ground safely. I made the next version smaller, and I'll probably see if it is capable of the journey closer to the launch window. Otherwise, it's launching an empty and fueling up.

As for Vall, I took the first version of my multistage Mun lander (here) and uprated it some. More thrust and fuel on the ascent stage, and the ability to fire the ascent rockets in descent if necessary. Just the lander, of course - the orbiter was not required. The descent and ascent stages have the same amount of thrust here, provided by three Rockomax 24-77s on each. Using just the descent set, the lander is capable of rising on Kerbin a couple of thousand metres, and settling back down safely, so Vall should be relatively trivial, thrustwise.

Additionally, I made three identical tiny ion lander probes which will double as a mini-transfer stage to get the Vall lander from Laythe orbit to Vall orbit. One of these probes is intended to land on Bop, one on Pol, and one on Vall. The Vall one is... a little debatable. A quick back-of-the-envelope calculation puts the ion lander probe's TWR at 0.95 when full and at 1.21 when empty, on Vall's surface. I somewhat doubt that it will be capable of such a feat, but it's just a probe. The Pol and Bop probe landers are intended to transfer from Vall orbit to Bop and Pol, land and return to Vall, then dock, and help push the ascent stage back to the main capsule. No pictures, unfortunately. I may make a mission thread for this, and if so, I'll take some then.

Edited May 20, 2014 by Concentric

[soulsource]

I did a bunch of testing of my "Mohollo" ship, whose name breaks the pattern set by Kerpollo, Gilpollo, Ikepollo, Drepollo, and Eelpollo. But I just like the sound of Mohollo.

Well, my never-go-back lander for Moho is called Mohobo. Because it can't get back to it's home ;-)

At the moment it's still at Kerbin, but in 4 days it will do a gravity assist at Mun and continue to Moho. The liquid fuel tank and engine is actually the second stage of the launch rocket and it's nearly empty. Hopefully this was the last non-SSTO mission for such small probes. The probe itself is using a single ion engine.

Yesterday I've been building a "better" SSTO. It's about four times the weight of my first successful attempt and just barely reaches orbit, but it looks much better. After I successfully tested it, I decided to put some payload, just to realise that the cargo bay was too narrow for any transport vehicle to enter, so I spent hours to build a transporter that has a long protruding armon which the payload can be placed. It took so long, because the arm had to be at the right height to allow docking the cargo, and of course a counterweight was necessary as well. Really frustrating were the attempts that seemed to work until the already undocked arm of the transporter got stuck and broke the payload...

Today I'm going to get the first payload, a probe, to orbit. Not that the Launch window for its flight to Jool would be anytime soon, but an unmanned probe won't care.

<iframe class="imgur-album" src="http://imgur.com/a/FafEe/embed" frameborder="0" height="550" width="75%"></iframe>

[KerbMav]

Construction of new ship continues - do I really want a TWR of 0.23 before additional payload?

[joekidd1992]

Playing in Career Mode, I launched a Münar landing viechle with Jeb. Pretty uneventful, except for some plot twists:

My first ever manned trip to the Mün!

Halfway there I realised I just don't have enough ÃŽâ€v to even break before landing.

Well, whatever, doing my first manned fly-by instead - grab that EVA, Jeb!

Done, I guess we can plan a reentry burn... what, what, there's another craft at the KSC?

Jeb is piloting the KSC craft? Then who is... BILL!? It was Bill all along? Oh snap.

I'm so proud of him, didn't even blink through the whole flight. Freaking Bill, man. My new favourite Kerbal, bar none.

Ended up doing a Minmus fly-by as well, also my first. Had some spare fuel for the last-minute reentry breaking, too.

Freaking Bill, man.

Good for you! I just managed do both of those within the last week. Very tough!

[HazelPine]

I mapped Kerbin, Mun and Minmus today to start my carrer kethane Easter egg hunt. I also started designing a Kerbin circumnavigation capable rover.

[Vortex421]

Now that I've refined my launcher and lander techniques and designs a bit, I'm working on creating a science station over Minmus from which science projects can be sent up from the surface, cleaned by the lab, and sent back. All the data is stored in a courier ship that makes a run back and forth from Kerbal.

If this design works properly, I can use it to prepare similar expeditions to the further reaches of the known solar system.

(I also have to do some lander design work... it's taking time because I'm in career mode)

[ximrm]

My first atempt at importing a model into ksp.

Well..it didn't really have the right attachmentpoints,but i did not get an error and it was animated but i forgot the textures.Sadly it didn't propell me.Looks like ive taken the wrong part.cfg. Even though i don't have any experience with unity ,nor programming.(except Q-Basic))

Yet First try! Made my day.

I think I'll start with my flower powered Kelix-Kyperdrive

Runs on Kethane(green)

Edited May 21, 2014 by ximrm

[cantab]

Messing around with rovers mainly. I'd built one that was good on the ground, nice and rugged, but couldn't fit enough fuel on to return from Duna (which is my plan for it). Then I built a larger one that'll have the space for the fuel, but I'm having trouble making a decent rollcage for it.