What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Duke23]

I flew my boxplane off into the sunset... Literally. Now it's dark and I have no lights and there's no way I can set her down in the mountains like that. Guess I need to find a good flat spot to wait till morning.

[Bishop149]

I finally got a Magnetoplasmadynamic ship powered by microwaves (Interstellar) working.

As long as it maintains line of sight to Kerbin it has up to 22GW of power available to it.

The remaining DeltaV, TWR and Thrust figures post mun landing are all rather impressive, and 22GW might be a slight overkill

Now I need to set the same up in the Jool system, the power generator weighs 190 tons . . . getting that there will be fun. . .

[Grimfilth]

Launched a small mountain filled with most of Kerbins fuel. My pc wasn't too happy with the launch either.

[NecroBones]

Completed jool 5 challange. Still havnt been to Duna.

Isn't that a little backward? Nice.

The Jool window opened. And because motherships are so passé, I sent a convoy:

http://i.imgur.com/M2fAnH8.jpg

Umm, they're all supposed to be going to the same place. Looks like I messed up a couple of the burns...

Oh wow. Good luck! I sent a much smaller convoy once... I was juggling only 3 or 4 ships. That was enough for me. Even with adjusting their trajectories so that they would arrive with days in between their SOI transitions, I still ended up in situations where one would be finishing a maneuver, and I'd have only MINUTES before the next maneuver with another ship.

I really hope you have Alarm Clock.

[Oafman]

IOh wow. Good luck! I sent a much smaller convoy once... I was juggling only 3 or 4 ships. That was enough for me. Even with adjusting their trajectories so that they would arrive with days in between their SOI transitions, I still ended up in situations where one would be finishing a maneuver, and I'd have only MINUTES before the next maneuver with another ship.

I really hope you have Alarm Clock.

Yeah i could not have hoped to do that without alarm clock. It was 15 ships in very similar orbits, which I had tried to space out pretty evenly. I set up all the burns (a couple needed to be pushed back one orbit as they clashed), orientated all the ships correctly, then had a frantic half hour of burning-switching ships-burning. It was unusually intense for KSP but good fun.

Importantly, I gave every ship a kerbodyne KR-2l, the big 3.75m engine. They're not the most efficient, but I needed to keep burn times under 90 seconds as some were barely more than 2 minutes apart

No idea what will happen at the other end, but I'm guessing the subtle differences in the nodes and burns will mean they'll get to Jool weeks apart from each other. If they all get there together I'm really going to struggle with the aerobraking...!

[Bioman222]

I got out and pushed a orbitally stranded craft. It is a tedious process, however, its orbit is slowly decaying.

[AlternNocturn]

I built a single-launch, self-building space station kit. http://www.reddit.com/r/KerbalSpaceProgram/comments/2ard12/1launch_selfbuilding_space_station_codename/

[NecroBones]

Yeah i could not have hoped to do that without alarm clock. It was 15 ships in very similar orbits, which I had tried to space out pretty evenly. I set up all the burns (a couple needed to be pushed back one orbit as they clashed), orientated all the ships correctly, then had a frantic half hour of burning-switching ships-burning. It was unusually intense for KSP but good fun.

Importantly, I gave every ship a kerbodyne KR-2l, the big 3.75m engine. They're not the most efficient, but I needed to keep burn times under 90 seconds as some were barely more than 2 minutes apart

No idea what will happen at the other end, but I'm guessing the subtle differences in the nodes and burns will mean they'll get to Jool weeks apart from each other. If they all get there together I'm really going to struggle with the aerobraking...!

Awesome! Yeah, the KR-2L is really nice for quick burns. I'd expect the other end to be just as frantic, in a different way. The good news, is that after entering Jool's SOI, you have something like a week until periapsis. So you'll probably be going back and forth between setting periapsis altitudes upon entering the SOI with one ship, and doing the aerobrake with another, and orbital insertions with others. It'll be nerve-wracking, but fun.

[Concentric]

Designed, built and tested a new lifter. Afterwards, the 7472. Also, checked the price of the X200-8 in-game: 2600. So, it's actually the fourth best tank for fuel per funds. Of course, the Kerbodyne tanks' 2600 cost is surely a placeholder, so that's subject to change.

The FiveByFive lifter, shown here with its 70t test payload. The payload fuel tank cannot automatically feed into the rest of the rocket (there's a structural panel between), its fuel levels were set to get just under 70t mass, and extras were added on to get it exact.

The FiveByFive lifter is a two-stage, straight up lifter with no boosters. Each stage has a 5-engine cluster: at the bottom is a KR-2L and two KR-1x2 LFBs clipped in through editor shenanigans (no debug menu, just some fiddling about in the editor). The other stage has four aerospikes and a Poodle, again using clipped tanks. Getting all the fuel lines in and running properly was a pain, and the LFBs had to have struts there too. The FL-T100 are placed to make the fuel-line placement work. Because of this, all engines in each cluster flame out at the same time.

The launch profile is not entirely simple. The closeness of the engines mean that some care must be taken to avoid overheating. First, full throttle at launch until 150m/s. The KR-2L may look like it's about to overheat, but it'll be fine. Decrease throttle to keep TWR at ~1 until 2/3 throttle. This is almost at 10km, where a gentle gravity turn begins. Once pointing at 45^o up, stay pointing that way. At 35km, throttle up to full. Very soon, it'll be time to stage, do so as soon as the engines flame out.

It's an explosive staging as the stack separator is pushed back by the engine exhaust into the tank. When time to apoapse starts increasing, slowly tip towards the horizon. Turn too fast and the 'spikes can overheat, so be gentle. Once out of the atmosphere, you should be horizontal.

Burn at full power until periapse appears, then apoapse-surf, burning just before apoapse to push it away and lift the periapse. Finally, circularise.

And with 7 liquid fuel remaining, the 70t test payload is in LKO. Perhaps if the orbit was a little lower, there'd be more fuel left, but this is how it turned out. I transferred fuel from the test payload and deorbited fast. Attempted to land it, but with no landing gear and only two parachutes (only on the payload to make the mass right), the 5m/s touch down lead to it falling over and exploding instead.

The Apollo-like mission set up for a picture, then recovered to be launched a different day. This payload is only ~61t, so there should be leeway in the launch. Haven't tested the Mun-side parts, though... if more fuel is needed, I do have that 9t margin. That's four FL-T400, if need be.

---

Then, the 7472. As the name suggests, as a part of my budget-slashing for simple Mun missions, this costs only 7472 funds. Compared to the 9222, the number of struts has been halved (the two at the bottom of the boosters have been removed), as has the number of reaction wheels. Also, the LV-909 and small decoupler have been switched for the 48-7S and tiny decoupler. The delta-v increase from this surprised me, actually.

Launch on boosters... wondering if I really need that reaction wheel. It's not easy to control, but it's also not a constant fight.

Circularisation and transfer...

Landing and return.

The transfer stage actually had a little fuel left in it as the lander came to touch down. A relatively inefficient return still left the ship with 10 liquid fuel. Not sure I can cut another tank... but I'll probably try anyway. And there's that reaction wheel and those last two struts, too, if removing them doesn't make the ship unflyable.

Anyway, that brings the cost of a Mun mission down under 7500 funds. Perhaps I should make a challenge out of this, if I'm going to keep doing it...

Edited July 15, 2014 by Concentric

[Oafman]

Awesome! Yeah, the KR-2L is really nice for quick burns. I'd expect the other end to be just as frantic, in a different way. The good news, is that after entering Jool's SOI, you have something like a week until periapsis. So you'll probably be going back and forth between setting periapsis altitudes upon entering the SOI with one ship, and doing the aerobrake with another, and orbital insertions with others. It'll be nerve-wracking, but fun.

Where Alarm Clock really became important with this was not actually knowing the order of ships to burn (not hard to just switch to the next ship in line on the map screen) but in setting up all the timings in advance. Alarms set for 2 mins before each burn enabled me to see exactly where a clash was scheduled. The same should apply with entering Jool's SoI. I'll be able to see well in advance if 2 ships will be approaching Jool at similar times, and make a slight change to one to ensure I have sufficient gaps in my aerobraking schedule.

All this effort just to get some serious hardware into space before it starts costing kredits to do so....

[magnemoe]

Build my second spaceplane who works.

Its role is to take lots of kerbals and light cargo into orbit.

[PixelClef]

Still very much in beginner mode, here.

With some help from the forum, I'm now coming close to finishing the career tech tree. All my work so far has been in Kerbin orbit, Minmus and Munar landings. I've also successfully complete a pair each of orbit-and-return gravity probe missions to Kerbin's satellites.

Over the last week, I've done lots of testing trying to land my Mun Lab with a rover. I have proven successful in adapting a 55 ton LKO lifter (based on screen shots of the LT branch of Munshine V), landing on the Mun and even demonstrated that return to Kerbin is completely possible with my return vessel. If only the Mun hadn't gotten in the way.

The only trouble with my successful landing was that the legs on Mun Lab 01 compressed too much to provide enough clearance to drive (or push) the rover out from underneath. Since then, I've redesigned the lab with greater clearance and also more thrust. This morning I got Mun Lab 02 into Munar orbit and tried twice to land it, only to be thwarted by a combination of uneven terrain, achingly slow craft rotation and the resulting panic. If another redesign is needed, I will add some RCS.

Still, with a little more practice, I am certain to land this beast, give the near successes I've already achieved. Everything I've read about Munar landings is true: try your hand on Minmus first. It's harder to get there - due to distance and orbital inclination - but it's far easier to land. I made two landings on Minmus before trying my first Munar landing. I suppose I may have to take a Mun Lab to Minmus as well.

I've actually landed twice on each satellite, and the second Munar landing had a toy rover. This success is what lead me to want a larger, more robust lander with science instruments and a local lab for delivery. The plan is to ferry seismic and gravity data from multiple Munar biomes, transfer as much of it onto the return vessel as I can, and return for massive science.

[Red Iron Crown]

The only trouble with my successful landing was that the legs on Mun Lab 01 compressed too much to provide enough clearance to drive (or push) the rover out from underneath. Since then, I've redesigned the lab with greater clearance and also more thrust. This morning I got Mun Lab 02 into Munar orbit and tried twice to land it, only to be thwarted by a combination of uneven terrain, achingly slow craft rotation and the resulting panic. If another redesign is needed, I will add some RCS.

Just for future reference, you can lock the suspension on the landing legs if your clearance is marginal. Your ability to absorb landing shock is reduced, though.

[PixelClef]

Good information, thanks!

The way I land, though … I need as much cushion as I can get. My last seconds are tense key mashing mixed with equal parts arrogance, terror and a heaping helping of wishful thinking.

I suppose there would be little hope for tapping a brief second of thrust, adjusting the suspension and letting her land again? Leads me to wonder if there is a way to define action groups outside the VAB, since I found out yesterday that you can restage after launching.

[Red Iron Crown]

I suppose there would be little hope for tapping a brief second of thrust, adjusting the suspension and letting her land again? Leads me to wonder if there is a way to define action groups outside the VAB, since I found out yesterday that you can restage after launching.

Definitely possible to use thrust for this. You don't need to take off, just increase thrust until the legs fully extended, lock them, then kill the engine.

Can't rearrange action groups on the fly in stock, a mod is required. (I'm hesitant to recommend one, there are two popular ones and I'm not sure which is better, Action Group Manager or Action Groups Extended).

[PixelClef]

Hmm. That has some promise, if (when?) I get into that situation again.

Even with the over-thrusters I've put on, I could tweak the maximum thrust down so that the throttle grade is much more easily featherable, carefully run it up and then take a quick trip around, locking leg suspension before I get full lift and start to panic again.

Hmm, yes. This even makes me believe that I just may have been able to use this on my first landing, even though the wheels were partly damaged. Kinda like learning to think with Portals. The tools are there, just gotta get creative in the application.

[Red Iron Crown]

Is it a manned mission? If so your kerbal can repair the wheels during EVA.

[PixelClef]

It was indeed. I have a save, so I will just load it up tonight and try that out. For science!

Delightfully, I was aware that our little green friends could fix tires (that Goodyear degree in action). But I couldn't get the rover out. Boarding was out of the question, since the seat was obstructed. I even had a little fella trying to push it out. No joy. I think it's worth a shot to deboard two (so I can [ between them easily) and try to gently thrust the Mun Lab up off the rover while trying to reboard, pushing, or locking suspension.

Hmm. May have to put one in the lab in order to hide him from the [ sequence?

[Oafman]

Any chance of launching the lander with the rover undocked, leaving the rover where it is now, then landing a few metres away?

[PixelClef]

Oafman,

That's the original idea that I had, but the very thought sent me into a spasm of terror! I'm still very much the beginner, and it was hard enough for me to land that monster. Landing one-kerbal vessels was cake compared to these larger monsters. I strongly suspect that my technology is a bit behind my ambition. I have been getting the sneaking suspicion that another ASAS would help, as well as RCS.

Additionally, I need to practice Munar landing so that I have more confidence and it's commonplace. And therefore no longer the mouse-rending, white-knuckle experience I currently go through.

[magnemoe]

Good information, thanks!

The way I land, though … I need as much cushion as I can get. My last seconds are tense key mashing mixed with equal parts arrogance, terror and a heaping helping of wishful thinking.

I suppose there would be little hope for tapping a brief second of thrust, adjusting the suspension and letting her land again? Leads me to wonder if there is a way to define action groups outside the VAB, since I found out yesterday that you can restage after launching.

Remember an Eve lander with the same problem, worse since gravity on Eve is higher, luckily I was in a hill so taking off and going to 5 meter and down had the rover roll out of way.

At least for bodies with atmosphere I found it was smarter do deorbit the rover independently.

[PixelClef]

I can't recall if my landing was on a slope or not.

Would a rover roll with busted wheels? Hemm, I suppose I could fix them first and make that question moot.

[boa3532]

Had a couple of milestones over the weekend.... got really comfortable doing eva in the vastness of space. Before it was not uncommon to take a Kerb out and screw up so bad that the ship is receding away VERY quickly.

After a crash landing on Mun with the only thing surviving is the pod, with Jeb inside... I managed to land a rescue ship 5k from the crash site, walked Jeb to the ship and brought him home. First successful rescue.

First landing of a probe on Duna, though it hit the ground hard enough to tip over... but I was able to collect and transmit science... so a successful mission!

And finally figured out how to rendezvous consistently. Done it before but it was usualy a hit or miss.

[PixelClef]

Nice! Figuring out how to rendezvous consistently. Grats!

I'm still too chicken to try.

[Torquemadus]

Today I test flew my new stock space plane.