What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Vahal]

Thank the Eve's syrupy atmosphere

Well, after six career attempts who failed because of corrupted save files, mod fatal update for my .craft or my entire game I finally did it! Jool You're MINE!!! I though I was cursed

I missed land U_U. But this mission gave me A LOT of science and I have nice wtf moments. I forgot to refuel my Impactors before releasing them so 4 of my 6 impactors just drifted way like space debris, I overstimated the aerobrake effect with Laythe so I had to burn some fuel more, fuel who missed to slow enough to land on the ground instead of the ocean. Well, I know what to do with the next La Perouse lander probe

Time for the 8 other ships to arrive!

The Jool Exploration Fleet on the departure... A long time ago now (Damn it takes AGES to reach the green god of Kerbol system!)

[Airlock]

Took this shot during a Tylo flyby on the way to Vall.

[Ruthgar]

Sent an unmanned probe to Eve. Took 2 years and 91 days to get there. Came punching through atmo at something like 3000 m/s, only to realize too late that I didn't pull my Solar panels in. Got one retracted in time but scattered the other all over Eve. Finally got low enough to deploy chutes. Only to realize "Crap, I'm over water." So I'm coming in at a good speed thinking "Okay, I can still make something of this", waiting for the chutes to fully deploy, then suddenly "whump" the whole shebang comes apart. GAHHHHHH!!!!!:mad:

ouch, had that happen to me a few times, even on Kerbin if the ship I'm flying has taken a beating, or deployed the chutes too early (during or before the atmo burn) One thing I do in carreer mode if I've got the tech already is to install a drogue chute opens up at a higher altitude as a default, plus doesn't slow you down as quickly, which reduces the shock to your craft. Then I usually have multiple sets of chutes as I tend to land my landers back on kerbin intact nowadays. I have one set that deploys first attached to the upper non-science section and usually set to 1k altitude deployment (current lander is X shaped with the science and command module hanging below the center of the X) then I have a double set attached to the top of the sci/command module that I activate once the lander rig set is fully deployed, the command module and other science mods also have one emergency chute each (2 on the 3 man pods) that I activate IF anything happens to the rest of the lander and/or chutes.

Have found that without a drogue chute, you have to stagger your chute deployments going into hi-grav, hi-atmos planets like EVE, otherwise you need to strut your reentry vehicle to hell and back. By staggering, I mean only open one chute at a time, wait 5-10 seconds, then open the next, once you have your speed down to around 50 it's generally safe to open the rest. Even using this method I still have suffered a 10-20% loss of landers doing a non-powered descent. And I still use parachutes on those doing a powered descent, just wait till the atmo burn is done, the power up the engines, once my speed has dropped from using the engines, then I deploy chutes, then cut the engines.

Edited July 7, 2014 by Ruthgar

[Ruthgar]

Built a few rovers that are completely separate from any type of engine system aside from RCS (useful for keeping stable when Bob suddenly sends one airborne, think he actually cleared 100 meters there on the mun) and I'm glad my lander could bring two along as Bob....kinda smashed the deployable solar panels on it, and all it has left are the basic fixed panels. Here's a few screenshots of them on the Mun.

Rover 1 after the panel smashing, and airborne in this picture.

And here's Bob in his brand new Rover aka Rover 2

Like I said, these are the first dedicated rovers I've ever used off of Kerbin, usually have made a lander/rover before. I'm finding these things to be a little more difficult to use. Also find myself quoting Talladega Nights a lot "Oh we're flying through the air (AGAIN) that's not good"

[GoSlash27]

I proved to myself that ion gliders ain't goin' to space today

[Cerberus738]

Had a fun and productive day today!! First things first, i sent up some parachutes to attempt the landing of my freshly captured asteroid!! The push vehicle performed perfectly and after a refuel around the mun it moved the asteroid into LKO in preparation for landing!!

Attached the parachutes. Sent up 8 units at first but ended up only needing 2.

After 4 attempts at landing near KSC this is as close as i could get. I figure 10km isn't too far to drive it if i ever decide i want to move it. Maybe I'll just build a new house over there.

Well with such a great success i set my eyes on the largest one i could find!!! First sent out my original capture ship and it made the capture but with 3000tons of rock to push there was not enough fuel to get it into Kerbin orbit. I quickly threw together the Push Master 3000 and got 12000 deltaV using Nukes! Well capture was a success but could not for the life of me keep the center of mass lined up and it just kept spinning in circles. Somehow i got the whole works twisted together end a very pretty explosion ended the career of the Push Master 3000.... luckily i had transferred fuel into my other capture vehicle!! 100m/s of deltaV! it was just enough to get into kerbin orbit!!! aaaaaaah capture sucess!

Decided to just send more fuel and torque up. Started attaching these guys all over the asteroid. moving it closer to kerbin with every bit of fuel i could get up there.

After 9 torque units and 2 refuels plus a gravity assist from the Mun (i'm really sad i missed that screenshot opportunity!!! It was pretty fun cruising an asteroid along the surface of the Mun!!) i've managed to park this monster in a 5 million km equatorial orbit!!

Now what!!?

Lets build a base out of it!

[LethalDose]

Landed my Moho probe! Smack dab in the middle of that crater.

Making orbit was easy and only took ~ 1300 m/s, after a braking orbit.

[Gods315Pawn]

First a question, where are those asteroids coming from? Second, I would like to report that I did manage to land Chief Master Sergeant Jebediah(he was awarded a promotion) on the Mun and get him back. My painstakingly created lifter had to be slightly tweaked from two onion stages and two asparagus to three and one respectively. Not quite enough oomph to make orbit before losing the asparagus layers and subsequently the necessary thrust. No matter, this layout still got him back to Kerba Firma safely on the landers engines alone. Didn't even need the parachutes. Anyway, after that I built a rookie initiation craft so Bill could take a prospect on their first orbit (and to try out some new tech). Happy to welcome Airman Franklin Kerman to the crew.

[Cerberus738]

The asteroids randomly spawn around kerbin. In the space center you can track them and they get a name and show up as available targets fir your other ships

[coreross]

I had an interesting problem solving exercise in my long range probe as she was always running out of power. I had to do some creative burns, watch the video here:

[magnemoe]

Playing with reusable rockets.

Docking with the transport craft

Docking with rocket.

Next up is refueling

It can take 20 ton to LKO, length is 1.5 orange tank.

[soulsource]

Today I started my attempt on the Jool-5 Challenge. This will take a really long time, but I hope I have time to finish the challenge.

I started with building the Laythe lander, and it had more than enough delta-v to get into orbit around Kerbin.

EDIT: Ouch that didn't work.

I was playing with landers for a Jool-5 too, yet I started with one for Vall and Tylo. The current version, which should have enough dV for Tylo, weighs nearly 28 tons. It consists of three asparagus type stages, the first to go from orbit to a nearly vertical descent, the second to (hopefully) stop that descent right above the ground, land in one piece and launch again to an apoapsis of 10 km above ground, and the last to get that orbit stable again... After refueling this last stage should be suitable to land on Vall as well. Nevertheless, it's the most ugly craft I've designed up to now, and I'm not sure that it can be attached to the main ship without wobbling itself to death. Now I still need to add a lander for Laythe, probably a light space plane, and an ion engine powered lander for Bop and Pol...

[Mohole]

Today after screwing up and forgetting a ladder, I had to use the rcs pack to get my kerbal on the Mun for a routine Mun landing. However, he face planted and

the Hell Kracken ate him and the crew immediately after. When I reloaded the game, Jebadiah was on a sub-orbital trajectory on the Mun and my capsule (only a capsule because the lander was ripped into millions of pieces causing debris everywhere:P)

with the two other kerbals was on escape trajectory BUT I had a quick save, so no harm:). I don't have a picture because I panicked and reloaded the quick save.

[Thorium]

I started building Tylo lander, and I also got some spare time to start working with the Vall, Bop and Pol lander (It's not like this the Tylo lander looked when I was done, but this was the only picture I had of it)

Building the Tylo lander:

The lander for Vall, Bop and Pol:

[aramil]

Built My new KerbaL Orbital Staging Area:

Kerbal One - High Kerbal Orbit-850km

Taking a break:

Edited July 7, 2014 by aramil

[Gods315Pawn]

I sent SSgt Bob to the Mun for some science. He got the science. And a promotion! MSgt Bob returned safely.

I then spent an hour or more refamiliarizing myself with how bad I am at planes.

Why are planes so much more difficult?!?!

They tried consulting MSgt Bob, my least stupid Kerbal, but he just shrugged and said "Move the center of lift, maybe? Or try something smaller perhaps?"

That did result in a "successful" 5 minute flight and an absolutely, 100% luck, fully undamaged landing by CMSgt Jeb, who, despite numerous attempts to let SSgt Bill fly the experimental craft, was in the cockpit.

I am so bad about everything with wings. I can't build them or fly them.

[LordCorwin]

First Mun landing!!

[Thorium]

I was playing with landers for a Jool-5 too, yet I started with one for Vall and Tylo. The current version, which should have enough dV for Tylo, weighs nearly 28 tons. It consists of three asparagus type stages, the first to go from orbit to a nearly vertical descent, the second to (hopefully) stop that descent right above the ground, land in one piece and launch again to an apoapsis of 10 km above ground, and the last to get that orbit stable again... After refueling this last stage should be suitable to land on Vall as well. Nevertheless, it's the most ugly craft I've designed up to now, and I'm not sure that it can be attached to the main ship without wobbling itself to death. Now I still need to add a lander for Laythe, probably a light space plane, and an ion engine powered lander for Bop and Pol...

My lander for Tylo is extremely heavy, it weighs almost 100 tons, does someone have a better idea for a Tylo lander? It has enough fuel to land on Tylo, but the design is terrible. It is stable as a rock, it can land in steep terrain, but it is extremely fuel inefficient when it is that heavy. I'm sure I could have built a better craft, but after three hours of staging, testing and strutting the lander I was to tired to start over again.

Edited July 7, 2014 by Thorium

[cantab]

How many stages do you have? For Tylo a single-stage lander is possible but will be heavy and inefficient, two stage would be better. Either the conventional descent/ascent stage approach, or a lower stage that does the deorbit and velocity cancelling burns then is allowed to crash, so you just land the lighter upper stage.

Besides that, just seek to trim unnecessary weight. For example you can use multiple small lander cans, or even external seats, to accommodate your kerbals, and can take your science data and leave the Goo and Materials parts behind before making your ascent.

[michaelhester07]

I started a new campaign for july (can't get enough of the early stuff) after the base kraken threw my duna base onto the sun (i didn't let the warp end before I finalized an EPL ship). With this campaign came my first 2 stage mun lander which Jeb valiantly landed on the mun (after parallel parking that train this was childsplay to him).

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The first image has that 2 stage mun lander. The bottom stage has all the science experiments, the top has jeb. After landing he got out, grabbed the data, got back in and dusted off. The descent stage had a bit of fuel left in it so I used it to get to orbit faster. I had about 700dV when I hit orbit, more than enough to go home.

My new inline goo module made the landers more efficient for future designs.

[Felsmak]

I ran out of cash and could no longer pay the fund price for my new rocket parts, so I chose to pay the ion price instead. Here is the armored vehicle that I use to transport my payments.

[WooDzor]

Sent an unmanned probe to Eve. Took 2 years and 91 days to get there. Came punching through atmo at something like 3000 m/s, only to realize too late that I didn't pull my Solar panels in. Got one retracted in time but scattered the other all over Eve. Finally got low enough to deploy chutes. Only to realize "Crap, I'm over water." So I'm coming in at a good speed thinking "Okay, I can still make something of this", waiting for the chutes to fully deploy, then suddenly "whump" the whole shebang comes apart. GAHHHHHH!!!!!:mad:

Thank Kod for time acceleration.. Second time will go quicker

[WooDzor]

Today I’ve been trying to make a launch vehicle using only one of the long S1 SRB-KD25k solid rockets that came with the ARM update on the first stage. This gives the rocket a really nice Ares I look, but my upper stage and capsule are far too heavy for the single SRB to lift. I guess I’ll have to find some way to greatly decrease the mass of the upper stage and Orion-replica capsule for a booster using only one SRB to work.

Clipping my friend.. Clipping..

[TrooperCooper]

Landed and installed two more modules to my Mun Base. Maybe three more and the whole thing might be operational already.

I am accumulating quite some waste in the vicinity though.

[Concentric]

A bit of FourJade stuff, including a close (42km ASL periapse) flyby of Tylo, as the mission doesn't have a Tylo lander. Also included was some movement of probes - the Bop and Pol probes are now proceeding to their encounters. I'll have to check that I'm coming in on the proper side - all Joolian moons are tidally locked with Jool, right?

I'll write it up later.

Coming soon(ish): Jeb will lift off from Laythe and make his way to Pol (or possibly Bop), perform an ion landing with the capsule (as the Laythe lander's capsule is also an ion lander, and its core a small nuclear transfer stage, just as with the RedKing lander on which it was based), and then do the other. After that, it'll be time to see if the Vall lander has the fuel to get back to orbit, as the crew gather back together for the return journey.

Hoping I'll get that all done before 0.24.