What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Cirocco]

Yesterday was an awesome day, both in KSP and in real life.

First, one line on the good news from real life: My research paper got accepted at IOP Nanotechnology without the need for a revision.

But back to topic: Yesterday Jebediah returned from the coast of Eve to his rocket, bringing back a huge amount of science data. Then, after doing two simulations, it was decided that launching the damaged first stage was not doable without dropping four additional tanks and engines, in order to get symmetric thrust. Well, the stage could still match its specifications, but only because it was designed to launch at sea level and had a head start of more than 1.9 km of height. All other stages were fully intact and the rest of the launch went exactly as planned, as did the rendezvous with the mothership in orbit.

After bringing the mothership to a higher orbit around Eve using fuel that was left in the Eve lander and the transfer stage from Kerbin, the Gilly lander was decoupled and landed successfully. It is now on its way to rendezvous with the mothership that will bring the Kerbonauts, and more important, the science, back to Kerbin.

congrats on the paper! Also, how much does that monster weigh?! o_0

[soulsource]

Thanks!

The launcher, fully fueled, has nearly 2 Kilotons. I launched it mostly empty from Kerbin, refueled it in low orbit, high orbit and after entering a low orbit around Eve. I don't remember right now, how many tankers I sent for the refueling in total, but it were more than 20.

I didn't check how heavy it was when launching from Eve (after, as said, 2 tanks broke off and 4 additional ones had to be dropped for symmetric thrust), but I'd estimate that it weighed about 1.5 Kilotons.

[Cirocco]

How in the name of the kraken did you get something weighing near 2000 tons (mostly) intact to Eve surface? Powered landing?

[SelectHalfling0]

I haven't been able to do much. The decoupler bug still has not been fixed, and I'm too lazy to do any of the manual fixes or add seperatrons.

[nremies1]

Decided that I'd put my Ike mission on the back-burner for a while and dedicate the next few missions to finishing up my Mun landing program. Want to hit all the various spots there and I'm about halfway through the list. On a whim I decided I'd take a rover this time despite having no experience building or transporting a rover. So, in the finest tradition of KSP ("hey Bill, hold my snacks for a minute, will ya?"), we decided to throw it together, stick it to the top of the lander with tape and see what happens when we got it there ("Test it? I thought that's what we were taking it to the Mun for!").

So we stuck the tiny, badly-designed rover to the roof of the MM with a clampotron and drop the whole thing on the munar surface. Turns out the only way to get it on the ground was to unclamp it, at which point it teetered on the roof, and then thrust the whole lander up for a moment and drop it back down, hoping that the jolt will make the rover fall off the roof and land nearby.

Attempt #1 at this maneuver resulted in the rover landing right-side-up (yay) and then rolling about 2km away on its own (nooo) while Jeb chased it with his jetpack.

Attempt #2 began with setting the parking brake, then repeating the maneuver. Rover landed upright next to the lander and Jeb hopped aboard. Success!

Despite some careful driving it inevitably flipped over; Jeb's field-expedient solution to this problem was to back off about 20 paces, activate his jetpack, and fly full-speed into one of the legs, flipping the whole thing back over on the third or fourth attempt.

I ended up reverting to the save I made at touchdown and calling it a night, preferring to try to drive this contraption later.

[soulsource]

How in the name of the kraken did you get something weighing near 2000 tons (mostly) intact to Eve surface? Powered landing?

Yes, but also parachutes, which were set to open rather soon (2 km above the ground), so that they'd kill nearly all horizontal velocity. Regarding the vertical movement, they could slow down the ship to 26 m/s, terminal velocity at sea level would have been 22 m/s. Due to this, a rather short burn right above the surface was enough to land the ship more or less in one piece.

I've learned my lession though. The next big lander will have landing legs and more struts. Also, I'll try to use engines with a better TWR for the upper stages.

[Ruthgar]

I haven't been able to do much. The decoupler bug still has not been fixed, and I'm too lazy to do any of the manual fixes or add seperatrons.

Just wondering what bug you're talking about? Mine seem to work fine, even if I do have to use 1-3 extra spacebar taps at times.

[Ruthgar]

Yes, but also parachutes, which were set to open rather soon (2 km above the ground), so that they'd kill nearly all horizontal velocity. Regarding the vertical movement, they could slow down the ship to 26 m/s, terminal velocity at sea level would have been 22 m/s. Due to this, a rather short burn right above the surface was enough to land the ship more or less in one piece.

I've learned my lession though. The next big lander will have landing legs and more struts. Also, I'll try to use engines with a better TWR for the upper stages.

I also imagine you used one or two of the higher altitude drogues as well, plus a slight stagering of the chute openings to minimize the deceleration shock (lost a few landers and parts of others due to this)

[SHaFT7]

I also imagine you used one or two of the higher altitude drogues as well, plus a slight stagering of the chute openings to minimize the deceleration shock (lost a few landers and parts of others due to this)

This is what I did on my Eve lander. I set the parachute pairs to open at all different altitudes starting at 5000m and working down in 100m increments. it made the shock of opening nearly non-existent, as only 2 chutes would open at any one time.

[NecroBones]

Just wondering what bug you're talking about? Mine seem to work fine, even if I do have to use 1-3 extra spacebar taps at times.

Probably this one: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/88026-Radial-Decouplers-3-75m-Decoupler-Issues-%28Return-of-the-Kraken-0-24-2%29

[SHaFT7]

I went on a trip: To Duna!

http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g135/LordLundar/ksp2014073001.jpg

Kind of puny huh? Well that's a Jump Gate. With that I can get a space station that has both a gate and a Jump Engine attached, deorbit that gate and then I have a fast track to Duna. Damn I love that mod!

what mod is that? i'm very interested!

[SelectHalfling0]

Yes, its that one (2 posts above). All of my first stages use solid fuel radial boosters. The bug affects radial decouplers at low altitudes going below sub-orbital speeds. When I eject my solid fuel boosters, they do not get propelled off to the side and collide with the rocket.

[lordlundar]

what mod is that? i'm very interested!

Para-SCI Jump Drive. It's a different approach to non-OP rapid travel than what KSP Interstellar does. It's not OP in the following ways:

-You have to actually travel to the location already at least once normally to put a Jump Gate in orbit.

-You have to get the Jump Gate and sufficient electricity to the destination. Seeing as the Gate is a 5m part and not light it's a tough task. The Jump Drive is also a 5m part and pretty dense.

-You need to use a Gate and a Drive to get there and both need to be powered up. This uses 10k electric charge each so you need a LOT of power.

-Upon arrival the jumped item has absolutely no electric charge remaining regardless of how much it had prior. You'll need a passive way to generate power or you're dead in the water.

-During power up the ship increases in Mass considerably making an atmospheric jump hazardous. It's doable but you run the risk of parts breaking before you jump.

It's meant largely to having to avoid having to wait constantly for a transfer window then a frantic period sending off a number of vessels before repeating the process. Once you have a Gate and enough juice in orbit you can go there whenever you want.

[Ruthgar]

Probably this one: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/88026-Radial-Decouplers-3-75m-Decoupler-Issues-%28Return-of-the-Kraken-0-24-2%29

ahhh thanks, I usually just use the tt-70s which don't seem to have this issue.....provided you made sure to strut the tanks.

[Ruthgar]

Made a 16k fund cost Minimus lander that could return to Kerbin. Even though Bob did have to get out and push to get the PE down enough for the ship to deorbit on it's own on the return trip.

[Concentric]

Designed my Duna-Ike ship. Rather modular, has several Sr. docking ports in line, two normal docking ports to attach the nuclear drive modules that are currently in orbit (put them up a while ago when I did the suborbital nuke test and thus had access to the engines), and three Jr docking ports. I have already planned the flight procedure for it, though I haven't done any calculations. The mass is 50.17t, so I needed a lifter. I had the science to research the Kerbodyne tanks, but I decided that was unnecessary.

I made a 50t test payload out of fuel tanks with their resources disabled, but the first few lifters were more powerful than I needed: they could be pressed into service as 55t lifters, really. Eventually, I settled on a lifter: four of the Kerbodyne SRBs, and four LFBs around a mainsail-powered liquid core. The LFBs fed into the central tank.

In the above image, you can see a fuel-dump station I decided to put up as a demonstration of my lifter: it masses exactly 50t, and has electrical generation and storage as well as 3600 liquid fuel, 4400 oxidiser and 750 monopropellant. The docking ports are nice, too.

Full throttle until 1km, then throttle down to keep TWR at ~1. SRBs detach at about 10km, throttle up to half and turn to 45 degrees. LFBs detach a little after, throttle then goes to full. Want to keep the apoapse about 30 seconds away by tilting, until horizontal. Then, push apoapse a bit above target orbit, and cut throttle. If apoapse falls below target orbit, throttle up a little to raise it.

Got to 80km circular and decoupled the fuel-dump station. The decoupling messed up the orbit a little, but it's close enough to 80km circular. Not like there's any propulsion on it...

Had a little more than enough leftover fuel to deorbit, too. Tried to get close to KSC, but ended up mid-ocean to the west. If you notice a discrepancy with parachutes, that's because the deorbit of the first one broke a tank in the ocean, and when recovering debris, the science modules in orbit somehow also got recovered, so I had to reload from quicksave. Moved some 'chutes, added some struts, and launched again without taking pictures until in orbit.

The Duna-Ike ship has a Sr. docking port on the bottom, so if need be, I can remove that decoupler and decouple with the docking port instead. I took a couple of pictures of it on the lifter on the launchpad (before adding 'chutes and additional struts to the lifter). They're in the following spoiler:

[Dat_Spacewaffle]

did a Gemini styled mission. except I was using that bargain rocket parts mod, so the manned capsule was a cardboard box glued to a fuel tank

[tygoo7]

I did a mission to Mun for the 4th time in my 0.24 career. I sent up a weather satellite using the MCE mod. (only function is the repair panel, doesn't study weather). The big mission I did today was a mission to the north pole with my Arctic Explorer plane which can hit up to 830m/s (that's fastest I tested). I used Fine Print so I got one of the fly over contracts and I got one for the north pole. Bob and Lensey Kerman embarked on a long supersonic mission from KSC to the northpole while taking one stop to the north west then working back north. Man, the north pole with Astronomer's pack, it's beautiful. I got this amazing shot I really like of it. They also landed there so I could recover the plane and the Kerbals.

[General Rarity]

5m parts with the help of TweakScale... that baby has 6k m/s delta v with a 100t payload.

EDIT: SSTO with NEAR and Spaceplane+ as well with Infernal Robotics. Too bad it crashed on landing, but the crew lived. I need to put some RealChutes on it...

Edited August 1, 2014 by General Rarity

[TotalNewb]

Tygoo7, that's a really cool photo! Send it to the dude who's looking for wallpapers.

[KerbMav]

Operations at Jool are in full spate yet slow. The Mining Lander has brought up Kethane two times already from Pol's pole.

A manned expedition has returned from Pol's surface too, carrying a double batch of all experiments. Before that Bob attached four solar panels to the Crew Lander that have been forgotten during construction at KSC.

Currently the crew is filling up the Tylo Landing Assist modules by converting Kethane. Next will be the transfer of everything but the Mobile Miner and the cargo module to Tylo.

1y and 335d till transfer window Jool-Duna - then the Explorer III has to leave to assist the Duna Return Mission.

Note to self: When travelling beyond Duna, bring a Kethane generator or similar ...

[soulsource]

I also imagine you used one or two of the higher altitude drogues as well, plus a slight stagering of the chute openings to minimize the deceleration shock (lost a few landers and parts of others due to this)

Actually, I didn't... All parachutes opened simultaneously.

Meanwhile I finished all running missions in .23.5, meaning that I now officially did an Eve return mission on stock KSP (if you don't count KAC, but it only gives timing information, and doesn't change game balance) and I landed a probe on Laythe.

Afterwards I installed 0.24.2 with FAR, DRE, KIDS (set to the FAR -> Realistic preset), KAC, TAC, RT2, Fine Print, VOID, PWings, PFairings and Astronomers Visual Pack. This will be the first time I'm seriously trying to play with mods apart from KAC.

Edit: I forgot to mention, that for the new career mode save I'm planning not to revert any flights, and I'll only use quickload in case the game crashes, not to undo any of my own mistakes.

Edited August 1, 2014 by soulsource

[Reactordrone]

After offloading their excess fuel I returned a crew from Minmus with plenty of fuel to spare. Those rocket equations do come in handy

[Tandy45]

@soulsource, thanks for that I had no idea makes my mission planning a little easier knowing that, I assumed Jeb had snuck off before the launch phase and left a card board cut out - explains the silence mission control received. My return from Mun proved tricky, however with sheer luck and soiled pants Bill safely managed to arrive back at kerbin, although he discovered hitting the atmosphere at speed could result in being bounced back on his way to Mun. Not wanting to miss out and feeling guilty about diving out of the Mun mission as well as faking his death Jeb decided to control the Minmus mission (sources say he also wanted to fly as close to kerbin's ground as possible without actually crashing a feat he managed thrice at little over 35km above Kerbin) using the Munster which shockingly proved to be a success. I also found landing and taking off from Minmus a lot easier than the Mun. Something which means that Minmus has been ear marked as potential bases for deeper exploration into the Kerbol system. 100 days after setting off, Jeb returned a hero having successfully landed on Minmus, collecting soil samples, conducting various experiments and the occasional oo and aahing. Quite pleased with the Minmus mission achieved orbit, landed and returned on the first run, either I'm actually getting good at this rocket malarkey or the Kerbol god has decided to give me a helping hand.... oddly no one has seen Dean kermin for 103 days.... Jeb protests his innocence!

[federicoaa]

Accidentally I made a single stage to Mun rocket XD

Just strapped two orange tanks and a mainsail below my lander and got to LMO with that.

Oh, and Jeb got stuck in a deep crater in the south pole after loosing a bet with Bob about being able to land in a 45 degree slope...