What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Coam]

I tried quickly making a stock VTOL. I wasn't very successful, probably as the entire craft was made with guesswork as to how the lift-jets would work.

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Takeoff is technically STOL and it isn't capable of landing. I'll probably try again sometime with a more thought out design.

[Sidereus]

I built my first complex space station in Duna orbit today. Also my first shop-to-ship docking! (I've done plenty of rendezvous, but had no reason to dock until now).

The station consists of the Duna Orbital Operations Module (or DOOM), which has a 20-kerbal capacity and serves as the living quarters, and I just docked the Duna Orbital Science Module (or DOSM), which is pretty much just a science module with a Z-4k battery and some small solar panels for some extra power (which I couldn't quite justify sending with the DOOM; it cost too much Delta V).

Still attached to the DOSM is a lander to rescue a crew stranded on Duna's surface. It's waiting for a refueling ship (which is also carrying a lander with a rover to shuttle the surface crew around in).

[Starhawk]

I pulled off munar rendezvous, orbit, and return without maneuver nodes or patched conics.

I love flying by the seat of my pants. My return trajectory was purely 'by guess and by golly'. I think I had about four percent of my fuel left in the final stage after I achieved reentry.

I was very pleased when Jeb splashed down safely.

[Moesly_Armlis]

Joined the 1000 Tera metre high club with a velocity of 20.6G m/s!

Bob was blissfully completing science in the waters of Kerbin when the Kraken attacked! The explosion destroys the vessel, so try to reload and then again the Kraken strikes. But this time the command pod is sent at 68.67 times the speed of light into deep deep space.

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[capi3101]

I tried quickly making a stock VTOL. I wasn't very successful, probably as the entire craft was made with guesswork as to how the lift-jets would work.

http://imgur.com/a/PGX0t

Takeoff is technically STOL and it isn't capable of landing. I'll probably try again sometime with a more thought out design.

If you want some guidelines for VTOLs, try DocMoriarty's KSP Space Plane Construction and Operation Guide; it has a rather extensive section on what you're looking for design-wise. Most of the principles still apply in stock aero despite the guide being two versions old now. Having the RCS Build Aid mod installed makes building aircraft easier in general as well.

General rule - make the craft function well as a normal airplane first, and then try to turn it into a VTOL. I'd suggest replacing the lift engines with Basic Jets - it excels at low altitudes (particularly in terms of Isp) and it has inherently lower thrust. You'll also probably want to raise the position of the lift jets if you can - as a rule you want their CoT to be placed roughly as close to where the CoL whould go on a normal fixed-wing craft for stable VTOL flight.

[NASAHireMe]

I built and launched a Laythe VTOL spacecraft. It's got a science lab and all the science components so that I can knock out all of Laythe's science in one go rather than sending multiple landers/spaceplanes. It's currently in transit to Jool.

RV&Docked my third Tylo lander to my orbiting Tylo base. The first two landers were barely mission-capable. I upped the TWR on this third craft, so hopefully it'll make that long descent process a little better.

[Yukon0009]

[BlkBltChemie]

I completed my first in atmosphere circumnavigation of Kerbin with a plane - West to East, 1035 units of fuel at takeoff, overshot runway, glided around, and landed with 12.5 units of fuel remaining. Most of the flight had an upper altitude less than 25 km, but about 3/4 of the way around I started worrying about fuel so I starting hopping up to 30-45 km, shutting down the jet engines, coasting back to 18 km, and firing up the engines again until I made it back.

I also almost crash landed on Minmus, but bounced. Fortunately, my central engine and fuel tank survived so I decoupled my side tanks (half of one had been destroyed so the craft was unbalanced). Unfortunately, I had just transmitted data on the dark side and had no electric charge to control my craft which of course was spinning wildly. Fortunately, my pilot, Caling Kerman, had nerves of steel and fired the engines briefly everytime he was pointed skyward eventually getting a high enough AP that I was able to coast until I could see the sun, recharge a bit and circularize before a brief jump out of Kerbin's SOI for training purposes (in progress).

[cicatrix]

Jeb's approached to me with yet another crazy idea and I was foolish enough to fall in. Here's what happenned:

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[JacobT11]

Got a basic Minmus base set up, with a resupply ship in the lower left dropping off crew and picking up fuel for the return trip.

[Louella]

I built a rover, landed it on the dark side of the Mun, at night, with RCS as the final stage.

It landed safely, despite me having no idea where the surface was.

And then I rolled it because it had no lights and I had no idea what the surface was.

lol.

[xiziz]

Designed a few parts in blender, then proceeded to learn how to successfully get them in game, textured and with the correct rotation/facing to align properly. Making a bunch of real MKI stuff. Now I just gotta learn how to make colliders and animations for cargo bay doors, and learn how to make the tanks switch between fuels.

[GusTurbo]

Finished and released this: http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/82448-Saturbo-V-Version-2-0-Detailed-Apollo-Replica-%28NEW-RELEASE-Only-381-parts%21%29

[problemecium]

I'm taking another crack at the Jool-5 Challenge:

Album: http://imgur.com/a/4gJcu

[Liowen]

Spent some time designing a new mega tug using some of the ModRocketSys mod pieces, I do love the single 4x nuke. This thing is a bit nuts with nearly 12 grand of DV but a small .30 TWR, my hope is that with the new Double Duty Duna lander attached it will work as I have planned out.

[Yukon0009]

[Axelord FTW]

Launched the first interplanetary vehicle for my new game.

Target is Eve.

It holds three kerbals and also carries a micro probe.

I hope I didn't screw anything up, RemoteTech really amp up the challenge.

Mission plan is to reach Eve orbit,

enter Gilly's SOI,

land the probe on the surface,

collect science,

relaunch the probe toward EVE,

have it drop in atmosphere,

land, collect some more science,

return trip to Kerbin.

I'm most anxious about landing the probe with the signal delay on Gilly.

[KerbMav]

Fought memory problems with a new texture pack - after that seemed to be worked out, I still had problems with a visual mod not working - during testing in sandbox by flying the Kerbal X to Mun I encountered a strange bug, my center of mass/camera focus moved hundreds of meters away from my craft ... navball flying ftw, all landed and reorbited safely, but the bug persisted.

[percyPrune]

I took GERTI and went looking for polar bears.

[soulsource]

A lot has been going on in my stock save.

I did my first landing on Dres, immediately followed by the second, since there was still enough fuel left, just to be followed by the frustration that the "Plant a flag on Dres" contract showed up right after the second landing, when there wasn't enough fuel left to land without risking the safe return to Kerbin. Luckily two "Science data from space around Dres" contracts showed up, otherwise the mission would have been quite a financial loss...

The return transfer windows for both my manned missions, to Duna and to Dres opened, and while the mission to Duna safely returned to Kerbin already, bringing along a huge amount of science data, the one from Dres is still on the way.

A further transfer window, to Eve, opened, so I sent unmanned landers (that will not return) to Eve and Gilly. The one for Eve was first put in a Kolnya orbit for some time, and then proceeded to land close to the north pole of Eve. Obviously the biome map isn't following the coast lines accurately yet, as the lander is now on solid ground, but in the oceans biome... The lander for Gilly is now in an orbit around Eve, with an encounter with Gilly quite some time in the future. But well, it's unmanned, it doesn't mind waiting...

Last, but (financially) definitely not least, I sent a probe for a 1 million funds part testing contract to Duna. It's currently on its way there. Finally this will allow me to upgrade the VAB to Level 3....

Nevertheless, I'm now planning to pause my stock KSP save and switch to Realism Overhaul instead. I've already installed a second copy of KSP with it yesterday, and now I'm hoping that everything is installed correctly, so that I can just fire up the game on Sunday (no time today and tomorrow ) and start planning my first (more) realistic spacecraft...

[Tw1]

Nothing, was attempting to get the mods I use for Oceans of Eve to run in 0.90, but stuff kept crashing. If symptoms persist I might need to get some assistance.

[Overlocker]

Installing a bunch of mods for KSP 0.90 so finally I can play a maybe record some series of career mode! And also I have decoded an high resolution image of one Easter Egg that is harder to listen in 0.90

Edited January 16, 2015 by Overlocker

[Dazpoet]

My first ever space station/orbital build is starting to take form. The part with the large nukes will be the transfer stage for future interplanetary missions and I'll dock some science packages onto it over the next few launches. Plans are also laid out to make an escape pod and maybe transfer some kerbals up there (currently only probes "live" on the station). I also installed the station science mod just now for the ability to add some real usage to it

[capi3101]

Won an eBay auction - bought myself a couple of memory sticks that A) are going to be freakin' compatable with my motherboard THIS time and should double my computer's current memory, which means I might actually get a chance to play KSP without having to resort to using ATM (because after LoadOnDemand, that mod well and truly blows nuts - to coin a phrase from the works of Tom Clancy, it's been like switching mounts from Secretariat to Elsie the Cow...).

[Scarecrow88]

I went to Duna in an Apollo style mission, using a craft that was originally designed to go to Mun.

Thread and pictures here:

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/107486-Going-to-Duna-Apollo-style