What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Engineer of Stuff]

I used some software to rip a ton of models out of the game. I wanted to look at the 3-seat MK1-2 pod and explore what a clean, stock-alike remake would look like with the hatch aligned with the ladders on every other part and the 3 kerbals all sitting side by side the way God and James Webb intended. Why aren't they already side by side, I asked? Why does one guy have to sit down in the basement?

I then learned that Kerbals don't sit side by side in the existing Mk1-2 pod because their helmets are too big. :|

This is also why IVA visibility out of each forward rendezvous window blows so hard - the pod only tapers by 50% from one end to the other, and it's just not possible to seat a Kerbal far enough to one side that his he can face straight out that window without his helmet protruding right out of the craft.

Coundn't you just remove their helmets?

[Duke23]

Sent the V3-XL "Gooseneck" on it's maiden trip to drop off a satellite in orbit of Kerbin, pick up a stranded Kerbal, refuel and run out to Minmus to deploy a second satellite and retrieve an older satellite. Possibly not all in that order... I may wait to refuel at my Minmus depot depending on what everything looks like after the Kerbin side of the mission. Maiden mission may be a stretch because it's really just the tried and true Valkyrie with extra cargo space and more fuel. These satellites are of my "new standard" variety... They have docking ports on them for easy retrieval. That way I won't have to bring KAS supplies into orbit for routine retrieval missions, saving weight and space and also because it's really a pain to use winches in zero-g. The craft itself is still transitional meaning it has docking ports AND winches in the bays for compatibility until all the old probes have been recovered. It also carries a small liquid fuel / oxidizer drop tank on this mission to give it an extra 800 DV or so (I think was the figure) which was supposed to help it get to Minmus for its refuel but it's questionable at this point. The extra cargo space is probably useless for anything except this exact mission because I didn't do anything to increase the payload capacity over the standard Valkyrie; but these probes are light and the extra fuel needed to be added without changing the basic design of the craft.

As a side note, I really like the new look of the oversized tail fins / elevators I changed a while back. They suit the platform better than what I had on there before, and seem to give better control during slightly unbalanced situations.

Edited November 4, 2014 by Duke23

[Lunaran]

Coundn't you just remove their helmets?

Thought about it, but a helmetless IVA in that capsule seems ... wrong.

[xub313]

I made a cool looking plane with the spaceplane+ parts.

I also made a variant with RAPIERs instead of turbo jets that just about makes orbit.

Edited November 5, 2014 by xub313

[NecroBones]

I made a cool looking plane with the spaceplane+ parts.

http://i.imgur.com/J3Mr5QY.png

I also made a variant with RAPIERs instead of turbo jets that just about make orbit.

Clever design. It took me a second or two to realize what you did with those adapter pieces. I like it.

[KevinW42]

I performed my first successful Moho landing by using an unmanned probe. After transmitting science from the north pole, I decided to sacrifice my lander to the Mohole, but I forgot to turn SAS back on for takeoff, flipped, and broke the engine off. But with some tumbling and only a few more explosions, I managed to send what was left of my lander to the mysterious depths.

[Mitchz95]

Had some trouble during an aerocapture today. The U.K.S. Serenity was returning home from a Moho flyby and accidentally melted its engines off during the aerobraking maneuver. Since it only had one escape pod between the four crew members, I had to frantically send an SSTO to pick them up before they fell back into the atmosphere and crashed. I got them out (along with all their precious science) with less than five minutes to spare before the re-entry. Amusingly, the Serenity's command pod actually survived the crash so they probably would have been fine regardless.

Edited November 5, 2014 by Mitchz95

[Jouni]

I continued planning my big 6.4x Tylo mission. I launched an unfueled prototype lander to LKO with an extremely ugly rocket, and toyed with an idea of attaching the transfer stage to a giant thrust plate.

This approach is starting to feel like a dead end. The main engineering challenge is providing hundreds of tonnes of payload the 11 km/s of delta-v required to reach Tylo from LKO. A two-stage design with nuclear engines in the second stage and KR-2L engines in the first stage would probably have a payload fraction around 5%. To make it rigid enough, it should be launched in one piece, which would be quite a feat.

I'll probably have to borrow ideas from my stock Tylo ship. While chemical engines make the landing easier, nuclear engines are much more efficient, so it might be a good idea to use nuclear asparagus in the lander. And if the lander has a lot of nuclear engines, I can reuse them in the nuclear part of the transfer stage as well.

[Duke23]

Where we're going we don't need -- hey, what the -- come back here! No, don't --

[CatastrophicFailure]

Following with another 6.4x Kerbin mission....

Launched my first interplanetary mission in 6.4x today (not to be confused with x64:sealed:). My tiny Moho flyby went up on my Colossus-R workhorse (500t on the pad, 20-25t to LKO):

Korolev's Cross. Never gets old.

Then needed a 5.2km/s(!) transfer burn to a near-direct Moho encounter thanks to the awesome new MechJeb porkchop plot. "Near-" because MJ's node should have sent me right into the side of the planet but the TWR of the transfer stage is so low I'll still need a 300m/s correction burn later. The delta-v numbers in 6.4x are really staggering, that's almost enough for a full to-orbit Moho mission in stock.

The transfer stage is discarded and deployment of the ASBâ„¢'s (Asymmetrical Sciencey Bits)!

Moving at over 8.3km/s at this point, barely 15 hours later the probe is returning my first interplanetary Scienceâ„¢, and on to Moho! In 20 more days, its twin will be leaving for Jool (6.3km/s burn!).

[zekes]

I finished WARSPITE.

[Francois424]

I launched my Flying Science Lab to Eve, where after much problems taking off, I did get to.

Then after falling down to eve and reducing throttle, trying to keep dropping down at ~10m/s. I came to about 4'000m altitude where I shutdown my engine entirely and yet I am only falling at ~1m/s !?? I don't think an Eve glide equilibrium exists, but this is heading like a smooth landing... Eve never ceases to amaze me.

[EDIT] Oh boy... now 20min later and only lost 300m since last picture. Not complaining, hope the guys packed a photograph device to take good pics.

[EDIT2] Now at 3030m of altitude and super stable, losing maybe 1m every 30-60sec. I don't know what's going on, but I like it. Going to mute it and check it in the morning see where/if it crashed.

Looks like a successful landing while I was watching TV before going to bed. Took this screenie while on the ground. EVE landing? Successful !

Edited November 5, 2014 by Francois424

[Dire_Squid]

WARNING! HUGE, PASSIONATE RANT!!

What did I do "today"? I lost my Career Mode file due to the game bugging out... AGAIN!

Oh SURE, my Sandbox mode is untouched, BUT I DON'T CARE AOUT SANDBOX! I want a natural progression AND a challenge! I want to slowly expand my skills so I can get BETTER and more CREATIVE at this whole game, and all that delicious science and funding!!

(basically, JUST when I finally figured out how to pair up two frame-held Rovers attached to a Heavy Lander, especially since the previous launch I had to make my Kerbal march for 3 HOURS on the Mun back to the lander after his propellant ran out... and with this new rocket I could no longer focus on my rocket [darn you, "Focus: Kerbin"!], and I accidentally focused on a debris chunk of the rocket, and couldn't get back to Space Center... and had to FORCE hard-boot the laptop!)

Sorry for the rage-fuelled rant... I'm just saying that FOR ONCE I'd LIKE to progress my Career Mode unhindered WITHOUT something ruining my file, and WITHOUT bothering to learn how to back up files!!

Once again... I'm sorry for this... I... need to vent something badly.

Uhm... also, is there any way, through the KSP Data or anything else, I can... change/undo something to revise it back to before it got damaged?

Edited November 5, 2014 by Dire_Squid

[Spatzimaus]

In my last update, a couple days ago, Jeb refueled his spaceplane (the Sleazy Weasel, model 7e) at my brand-new Minmus orbital refinery. My intention was to then fly to Ike, land there, and get some science. It was a perfectly serviceable goal for the shakedown cruise of a new vessel design, and should have gone off without a hitch. After all, this plane was designed to fly to Laythe, so Ike should have been no issue at all. Unfortunately, Jeb had other ideas:

Yep, the little psycho decided to take my shiny, expensive long-range spaceplane down to Duna, a planet with no oxygen and only a thin atmosphere, combined with a higher surface gravity than that plane is rated for. And oh yeah, he landed at night. The landing was VERY hairy; I was sure the gear would explode at least three or four times and it almost wobbled too far twice. But somehow Jeb's sheer awesomeness pulled it off and next thing you know he was taking his first steps on Duna.

Taking off was even scarier, because Duna's atmosphere simply wasn't thick enough to get the lift needed to pull away from the surface. In the end I had to wait until my ground-based acceleration took Jeb over the top of a hill, at which point the now-airborne design could pull its nose up. But again, it somehow all worked and the Weasel returned to Duna orbit, albeit with more fuel expended than I was comfortable with. The trip home was fairly uneventful, other than the fact that I returned to Kerbin with zero oxidizer, xenon, or even monopropellant, and only about 100 units of liquid fuel...

Sometimes, I'm amazed that Jeb is still alive.

[Ravenchant]

I put up a Salyut in the multiplayer server of KSP Subreddit. Stage separation always looks nice

[Tw1]

[Jovus]

Finally started playing again, this time with KSPI, RemoteTech, and KCT. Finally did a close flyby of the Mun, and now it's time for me to put up my keostat network.

[Starman4308]

This approach is starting to feel like a dead end. The main engineering challenge is providing hundreds of tonnes of payload the 11 km/s of delta-v required to reach Tylo from LKO. A two-stage design with nuclear engines in the second stage and KR-2L engines in the first stage would probably have a payload fraction around 5%. To make it rigid enough, it should be launched in one piece, which would be quite a feat.

One potential suggestion is to use the Tylo lander's own engines for part of the transfer burn, and send a separate refueling mission to fill up its tanks in Tylo orbit.

As for myself, I finally got my Duna transfer stage up into Kerbin orbit, in preparation for rendezvous with Duna/Ike landers and the return stage. No screenshots unfortunately; my game bugged out hard, and I'm in the process of reinstalling all my mods. I've spent way too much time optimizing this mission, but with the brutality of 6.4x dV numbers, you pretty much have to shave off every kilogram of payload that you can.

[capi3101]

Decided to stop fiddling around with the Waste of Time 7 after adding VTOL capabilities to the craft - it inexplicably started spinning around faster and faster when the VTOLs were set to full throttle until structural failure occurred. I'm assuming either insufficient SAS or that the CoT was too low or imbalanced. Either way, without VTOL the craft will not be capable of doing its mission - and at the point I gave up I was on the verge of rage...

So I decided to pick my regular "pays money" game back up. Launched a Moneymaker to Munar orbit; arrived going the wrong direction for the required FinePrint contract, so I got to a flip around at Apoapsis - good thing the probe's designed with a serious excess of fuel. That went well. Moar money.

Landed Jeb on Minmus and finished the "Explore Minmus" contract. Moar money.

Got a space station in orbit of Minmus for a FinePrint contract. Moar money.

Landed a lab-habitat base on Minmus for a FinePrint contract. I haven't been awarded money for that one yet - which makes me wonder what part of the design didn't meet the contract's specifications. A supply mission might be in order.

Finally, I returned the Aux-IVx2 and Bob from his extended repair mission of the original Moneymaker 7 mission. Aerobraking to orbit went well and the deorbit overshot the KSC runway by only about 100 kilometers - came in with 90 units of oxidizer remaining but enough LF that I could've flown around for another hour if necessary. Had a few hairy moments getting turned around again (one of my RAPIERs flamed out on me unexpectedly - which is what I get for closing the intakes at low altitude - and sent it tumbling, but I was able to recover). Landing went smoothly right up until the end...I either didn't land with my wings level or the stance of the rear gear was too narrow; either way the plane tipped over and I sheared off the outboard starboard wings. I was able to correct and get the plane stopped - which was good, since I had forgotten how to activate the ejection sequence - so the whole rescue mission cost me the price of three Swept Wings, an Elevon 3, a Communotron 16 (the real "payload" of the whole mission) and the fuel. Aside from the glitch at the end, a rousing success.

[smysha]

Well, I've built and launched my Duna mission ship.

Can you see spare docking port? It was intended for engine section. But it was too heavy to launch using 2,5m parts. 3,75 are not unlocked just yet. But lander with lab docked have 4500 dV, so it will be enough. Probably. I had no time to build and launch another version of engine section because of Kerbal Construct Time and transfer window closing shortly. Let's hope that this is gonna work...

[Theoderich]

Well, I've built and launched my Duna mission ship.

http://i.imgur.com/Ykpz3Bl.png

Can you see spare docking port? It was intended for engine section. But it was too heavy to launch using 2,5m parts. 3,75 are not unlocked just yet. But lander with lab docked have 4500 dV, so it will be enough. Probably. I had no time to build and launch another version of engine section because of Kerbal Construct Time and transfer window closing shortly. Let's hope that this is gonna work...

With such a short ship it should work even with the 1.25m port. Maybe add a few more KAS strutsto besafe?

[Roflcopterkklol]

Finished this thing off for v .25

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/99268-0-25-Jet-powered-all-terrain-vehicle-%2880m-s-reliably-on-land-or-water%29

[RobotsAndSpaceships]

WARNING! HUGE, PASSIONATE RANT!!

-snip-

Just copy your file that is named saves to another location to back it up.

Edited November 5, 2014 by RobotsAndSpaceships

[smysha]

With such a short ship it should work even with the 1.25m port. Maybe add a few more KAS strutsto besafe?

I've added some, two or three. It had do be more, but I didn't watched numbers carefully when I launched engine section ad ended up with 0,8 and 0,9 TWR on my middle and upper stages. And than - splashed it down. Hard.

And ended up with these numbers: 11 days before constructing new engine section, 6 days before transfer window is closing and 4500 delta-V. Hopefully, Eve mission that is gonna be launched 23 days later will go better. It will be eqiped with extra-light Gilly lander, so TWR and dV balancing will be easier.

[Jouni]

One potential suggestion is to use the Tylo lander's own engines for part of the transfer burn, and send a separate refueling mission to fill up its tanks in Tylo orbit.

I already figured out the basic architecture. The nuclear asparagus lander is going to be around 200 tonnes with 28 nuclear engines. The transfer stage will consist of a thrust plate in front of the lander and 14 orange tanks docked to it. The total mass of this stage is going to be around 720 tonnes, and it will have around 7.6 km/s of delta-v. The initial Kerbin TWR will be around 0.24.

The Kerbin escape stage will be docked to another thrust plate behind the lander. With 7 KR-2L engines and 21 S3-14400 fuel tanks, it will provide around 3.4 km/s of delta-v with initial Kerbin TWR 0.71. Total mass of the ship will be a bit over 2500 tonnes. The escape stage can be launched as the upper stage of a giant rocket and refueled later.