What did you do in KSP1 today?

[TimePeriod]

21 part SSTO, 5.6T at launch. Single seater.

Contains edited parts:

Small Gear Bay reduced to 0.1 mass.

Final notes:

This is about as small as I can make an SSTO while it still resembles an aircraft.

Quirks

It does not glide.

It does not land well.

It does not take off well.

It barely docks.

But it has ½ a tank of fuel left once in a 75km orbit.

Important note

VERY - VERY - VERY Unstable. Will spin wildly out of control if not used with caution.

=-

==-

=-

After a bit of work, I managed to push the part count down a bit more:

18P/4.6T Single Seat SSTO.

Quirks

Very unstable in space.

Very unstable in flight.

Very little fuel when in space.

Can dock.

Edited September 7, 2014 by TimePeriod
Important note

[Archgeek]

I took Manley's Shortest Possible Space Mission Challenge, resulting in concerned roommates vis-a-vis my maniacal cries of "RISE, MY TERRIBLE CREATION~!" and the like.

I've managed to pull 2:07 in testing with KER assisting with terrain height, but already submitted sans KER at 2:10.

I'm very much looking forward to others' crazy responses to it.

[Kasuha]

Today I sent a permanent outpost to Duna. When it was well underway, I realized I forgot to put crew into it. So I had to send a chase misson with crew that met the outpost during the transfer.

[Red Iron Crown]

When it was well underway, I realized I forgot to put crew into it.

I know that feeling as well as its corollary, sending up a rescue ship that has its crew space automatically populated leaving no room for the rescuees. Hopefully someday crew state can be saved in the .craft file.

[Frank_G]

After taking the contract to plant a flag on Eve, i started experimenting with ascend stage configurations, to ensure the safe return of my brave kerbonauts... i came upon this design as the final stage of the ascend vehicle... it has more than 3.000 delta V and a TWR on Eve´s surface between 2.2 and 6.3 ... i bet this tiny thing packs a real punch when it comes to getting the job done... i also noticed, it has a TWR of 4.9 on Tylo... this will make things A LOT more easy, when i go on my next try to do the Jool Grand Tour once KSP .25 is released. I bet this could be easily modified to launch from Tylo on its own. This design is completely stock, uses neither cheats nor part clipping.

And now back to the VAB... I need to stick more parts together...

[r_rolo1]

I took Manley's Shortest Possible Space Mission Challenge, resulting in concerned roommates vis-a-vis my maniacal cries of "RISE, MY TERRIBLE CREATION~!" and the like.

(...)

I'm very much looking forward to others' crazy responses to it.

I passed some hours today doing so ... and you got me back to the drawing board ( I had a nice time of around 2:30 using some mumbo-jumbo aerodynamic tricks to cut the descent time ready to post )

Anyway, i think your time is beatable ... so back on the VAB

[TrooperCooper]

The experiment pods arrived at the Prometheus II in Minmus orbit. I had to realize that I need a 2nd cyclotron to run the excentric quark experiment, so an additional module had to be brought as well...

Later on, I designed and launched an improved Karbonite Karvester with a much higher capacity than my previous one.

After arriving at Minmus, it gathered 100k units of fuel from the surface and lifted it up to the Prometheus II...

Then the science ship left the small moon, heading back to Kerbin to be decommissioned...

A small passenger ship with four empty seats was launched...

Which picked up the crew of the Prometheus after its arrival in LKO...

and returned them together with the scientific data...

Edited September 7, 2014 by TrooperCooper

[Daffs]

I ticked off the last planet in my bucket list with Eeloo. Eeloo will be known as the eater of Solar Panels...Lander crashed into orbiter just after decoupling, which is what you get when you don't put RCS on board. Then my lander lost a panel due to a poorly EVA'd kerbal . V pleased with my ship design for this as I've basically used the same ship for one way contract missions to Duna, Dres, Moho, Eve and all their moons.

[ShawnPhillips]

Somehow got this abomination to fly.

On a full load of fuel it is too heavy to take off on the jet engines alone. However when the tanks are empty it glides very well.

Glides well enough to "survive" a water landing.

I would love 2.5m and 1.25 meter versions of the IXS command pod.

Edited September 7, 2014 by ShawnPhillips

[Yakky]

I took Manley's Shortest Possible Space Mission Challenge, resulting in concerned roommates vis-a-vis my maniacal cries of "RISE, MY TERRIBLE CREATION~!" and the like.

I've managed to pull 2:07 in testing with KER assisting with terrain height, but already submitted sans KER at 2:10.

I'm very much looking forward to others' crazy responses to it.

I took the Scott Manley Quick-Trip Challenge with FAR aerodynamics and got a time of 1:42 (but with a probe core, not with an actual Kerbal). Highlight pics below:

Liftoff:

Reverse! I staged from the above craft to this one at 37km and then decelerated all the way up to 70km. I'm proud of the fact that my peak altitude topped out at 70,041m while pulling more than 15 G's the whole way up. That was some nice luck...

A couple stagings through progressively smaller return rockets later, touchdown after a perfect last-second parachute deployment. Probe core and parachute safely back on land at 1:42! The rocket motor and fuel tanks of the final stage always blow up at about 500-1000m due to atmospheric forces, leaving only the probe and parachute for the final bit.

Verification:

Edited September 9, 2014 by Yakky

[problemecium]

Today I took my Stackable Ion Probe out on a shakedown run to Duna orbit and back to prove it actually had the Delta-V to be useful. I have proven to myself quite conclusively that it's rather lousy at ejection burns due to its limited battery supply, but otherwise it performed rather well even after my highly inefficient orbital transfer.

Also, note to posterity: Duna's atmosphere is really sucky for aerobraking. I almost hit the ground and was still very much on an escape trajectory, to the point where I had to resort to HyperEdit to save the mission (but I did still have fuel left at the end, so this is all Duna's fault and not the probe's).

[Redd]

Sent up two modules to my fuel station orbiting the Mun. First launch was a small little utility capsule loaded with some KAS containers filled with spare parts like struts. Made docking ports grabbable, as I forgot one on my station core. (Or rather, I thought of a missing module that I hadn't planned for).

Second launch was a mobile processing lab. Never really found a use for them so far, but am hoping I can keep my big and bulky interplanteray tug and lander at the fuel station rather than landing on kerbin after each trip. Now, all I need is a module with a bunch of escape pods that will allow me to cheaply transfer my kerbals and science between the station and KSC. Come to think of it, a spaceplane ferry would be awesome, though I have never attempted to design one. Will take me a while to get a working Kerbin-Mun ferry I'm sure.

Anyway, the main reason for posting here is this: The second module that got sent up had some lights on it that were apparently just at the right spot to light up all the rivets and edges but not the tanks. Quite a cool effect, even if it was completely by accident! Also, it happened to the transfer stage so... yeah... that is gone now.

[NecroBones]

Right when I was releasing my parts pack yesterday, I was able to sneak in one last part that I had just managed to get working. But it's a bit of an experiment. I have these fairings that are designed to clip into the tank above, that are non-collidable. They look great with the tank there, but they will look horrific on something smaller, like a command pod. So I'm thinking about redesigning them to at least look hollow if nothing is there, or something.

The little thumbnail on the left shows what the fairings look like if nothing is attached.

I would love some feedback on whether this part seems to work well like this or not (on the mod's thread, of course). The good news is I can modify it quite a bit without breaking people's designs, since the fairings are non-collidable, and it doesn't accept surface attachment, so I can play with the collision mesh as much as I want to anyway.

[Spartwo]

Took a trip to the north pole.

Still not as much fun as the first time though.

Edited September 7, 2014 by Spartwo

[Frank_G]

Well, quite a creative day... my Eve lander is ready to go. 8 asparagus staged aerospikes and a skipper will do the job, providing more than 11k of delta V. On top of that sits the lander can with a lightly modified design based on the RCS lander, which you can see here http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/29533-What-did-you-do-in-KSP-today?p=1400491&viewfull=1#post1400491 .

Top left: On the launch pad and Gravity turn

Top right: Almost into orbit and launch stage away

Middle: Return vehicle with Bob and Jeb Kerman onboard arriving at the Eve Lander

Bottom:Eve Lander, Return vehicle and transfer stage awaiting launch window

Tomorrow will be the day... After the transfer to Eve, Jeb Kerman will attempt to land on Eve, plant the flag, get some science and hopefully returns in one piece, while Bob Kerman will supervise the operation from orbit.

[edit] The costs are killing me... This mission costs almost 600k of funds, while paying only 375k back... Well, reputation and the knowledge that we can do it will be enough. Godspeed!

Edited September 7, 2014 by Frank_G

[Frank_G]

I know that feeling as well as its corollary, sending up a rescue ship that has its crew space automatically populated leaving no room for the rescuees. Hopefully someday crew state can be saved in the .craft file.

When i sent a probe to Eve today, i noticed - after decoupling the lander probe - that i had forgotten to put a probe core into it... Forgetting the obvious things really s^^ks.

[GreeningGalaxy]

I got RPM, with which I proceeded to make an IVA-only landing on Minmus.

It was hell.

On the subject, does anyone know if/where RPM lets you know that you've touched the ground? I don't really like estimating based on the assumption that my ship is ~9 meters tall and just looking to see when it drops a little below that to know when I've hit bottom.

I should probably also get Vessel Viewer so I don't have to keep popping in and out of IVA to turn the nuclear reactor on and off and change the VASIMR engine settings.

[Aragosnat]

Well. Built my shuttle and docked for my Interplanetary craft so glad struts don't act like they exist:

Here is a shot of just the Shuttle: http://cloud-4.steampowered.com/ugc/539626189500192713/1C6C8E02A64EF02D9579DA680AC979796B63EAB2/

The shuttle has a nice 2 ion drives for interplanetry runs if need be. Unlikely to be useful but it still helps out the the LV-909 which will be used for when the extra umph is needed. But, the main use will be to transfer science and Kerbals from lower orbits to a higher one to hopefully make it to orbit another planet's moon(s) if there is one.

[sumrex]

It was a vast slaughter of Kerbals today. I decided to get crackin on getting NEAR loaded so I can run with the new B9 parts pack and finish up the Valkyrie I am building. Lesson 1 recover all existing ships first before installing.

An existing Valkyrie makes a good touchdown. (I thought it would fly well anyway due to its shape being based on a real plane and adjustable wings which could increase lift or stability.)

The Wedgie stock plane from the SSTO contest I was testing shatters on reentry, miraculously the crew survives a vicious spin and lithobrake using the venerable "Distributed Landing Sequence".

Melbes survives with pure tenacity and an overabundance of horsepower used to somewhat control his crash. (ironically enough my SSTO stock entry )

Cadzilla flys home a bit low on fuel but flawless.

Now only a few more to go. Luckily most of the constellation is rescue ships

Anyway, it was a fun learning experience and more importantly my big SSTO's are still very viable. Anyhow, my question would be this, what item did you find you usually had to fix on your craft when cutting over to NEAR or FAR.

Edited September 8, 2014 by sumrex

[JebNeedsHelp]

Today I had a funny adventure on Dres. In my new .24.2. save, I haven't left Kerbin's SoI yet. Today I decided to send a 6-Kerbal Colony out - I thought I'd head for Duna but it was behind Kerbin, and Dres was just about in the right place, so I went for Dres instead. My transfer stage had enough fuel left in it that I figured I might as well try to land it, just to see if I could. Well, I came down in the dark and landed on the side of a crater. I decoupled the lander and gave myself some altitude as the rest of the ship bounced down the slope, breaking off three of the four engines. The fourth just kept going. Here's what it looked like the next day (notice the engine is still going):

Jed (not Jeb) went out to check things out:

I time warped ahead just to see how long this engine would run - it was at low power when I decoupled, and had quite a bit of fuel to burn. After 430 days, the engine was still going. This time Jed wanted to invent a new delicacy - vacuum-exposed nuclear cooked beanie weenies. However, before I could get Jed up to the flame, it died out. What were the odds? Jed was truly disappointed.

It's funny how things turn out when you deliberately try dumb things, just to see if you can.

[Mahnarch]

Hey, Mun...

What are you doing, tonight?

OH, right! Getting landed on!

By ME!

[Mahnarch]

[Double posting because the editor hates me, for some reason]

Edited September 8, 2014 by Mahnarch

[Johno]

Mahnarch: How do you land a spacecraft with boxing gloves on?

[Rainbowtrout]

Attempted to use the HX parts in B9.

[Spilldog]

Got my 23.5 Career images in order. Some of the Munar exploration ones here

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