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What did you do in KSP1 today?


Xeldrak

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Posted a thread that got locked down. First time that's happened; at least I got the information I wanted out of it first. Earned two points of rep in the process...

Yesterday I landed Jeb and Bob on the Mun to fulfill the Mun exploration contract. Used a modified Geschosskopf Sci Lander design to do the job; since I didn't have Mk1 Lander Cans yet I just stuck Bob up in the front seat (A Mk1 Capsule) with Jeb in the pilot's chair (A Mk1 Inline Cockpit) with two side chutes added. Got the Minmus exploration contract upon return, so I'll be sending them up again in the same ship. Also got a contract to test a RAPIER engine landed at Kerbin, which I did...in a spaceplane that made orbit, for the purposes of additional orbital parts testing. Switched over at 32k going 1900 m/s - made orbit easily with less than 150 m/s delta-v. I'll be bringing that craft back down tonight in all likelihood. All facilities are Level 2 now and I'm working towards unlocking the Level 3 R&D at the moment. Not sure which other facilities I want at level 3 just yet.

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In an effort to get a pile of experienced Kerbals I sent a rocket to the Munn with a mk3 passenger van with full compliment of 16. Only the accent want optimal so not sure if it has enough fuel to get back.

Luckily I planned for the eventuality and put a docking port on it. So here's to hoping it can get to orbit, so I can fuel it later

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I decided to send a probe to Mün, and then I sent one of the same to fullfill the explore minmus contract too, got lots of science from these two missions, especially the minmus one that hopped five biomes. So I decided I had to test the 2 kerbal pod before sending it for the first Kerballed Mün landing of this career.

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Landed my first ever base on the Mün. I know it isn't much, but with the "new" symmetry options in the VAB, I at least got around to make one, and land it.

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Also messed around a bit with my VTOL jet, practising manoeuvring it in hover mode. It's also in many ways one of my best planes to fly, though that might be because I made it so that the centre of lift is just a tiny distance behind the centre of mass. It's also able to pull off 8-9 G turns in the lower parts of the atmosphere, is able reach just under 1000m/s at 10-11km and can get up to about 13-14km before it starts to flame out (though that's in no way a record for me). Only downside of it is that it's kinda thirsty in the regular flying mode, and the range isn't much better than to let me play around the mountains, KSC and the abandoned airfield on that island.

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Today I tried to complete a Minmus gravitational scan contract, which paid 166k funds at the end, by keeping the ship as low-budget as possible.

I ended with Dr. Gravioli, an ion-powered probe. Total cost 23K funds.

I unusually felt like taking screenshots, so here is my boring mission.

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Edited by Janos1986
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Continued work on my Mun mining colony and installed (amongst many other things) a pylon at the outskirt of the installation that will act as a visual spot marker for incoming mineral freighters on their final landing approach as well as a gas station (Karbonite mining and refining capabilities included).

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Edited by TrooperCooper
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I ditched my "huge ship" idea, and decided to go for one-way missions with a small ship that can be launched into space on a launcher, powered by nuclear engines. First target - Duna. Sick and tired of just Mun and Minmus, time to stretch the legs.

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Sent a vehicle to Jool with two probes on board. Mission was to Explore Jool and Explore Bop. One probe had the standard 48-7S engine, with a deltaV of about 1800-1900 or so m/s; its mission was to orbit Jool. The other had an ion-engine with with a deltaV of around 6000m/s; I was originally shooting for 2000m/s but couldn't really get there with the 48-7S (at least not without stacking an un-aesthetically large amount of fuel tanks :D) so I decided to give the Ion engine a go.

So I got the thing into a far orbit of Jool, detached the Bop probe and sent its way, then tried to get my Jool probe into a low orbit. I tried to aerobrake....apparently I do no aerobrake good. :confused: First attempt was at ~150,000m, and it did nothing. Not enough atmo that high, I guess. Second attempt was around 100,000....and that was way too much. So I said to hell with it and did a normal Hohmann transfer. That worked. Sent science, bla bla bla.

So then I went to work on the Bop probe. First landing attempt I underestimated the burn time needed for the ion engine. I hit at around 32m/s. Busted 2/4 lander legs, and destroyed 2/4 1x6 solar panels. Oops.

I probably could have left it there; it was still intact and I could have finished the mission, but I decided to reload and try again. Second landing

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So I did all my science-y stuff, then sent it back into orbit for storage, since I still had a good 5000m/s deltaV left. Went back to space port, got to mission control, found two missions to Explore Pol and Tylo...you see where this is going. Sent my lander back to Pol, picked up that mission, then attempted Tylo.

I do not recommend attempting to land on Tylo with an ion engine. I'll leave it that. :sticktongue:

Still, a pretty productive run. 3.5/2 missions completed. Not too shabby.

Edited by Sidereus
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@Parallax: ... That is so cool.

I have been playing a Hard campaign with three mods: Kerbal Construction Time, Remote Tech, and TAC Life Support. As a result, my space program is 81 days old ... and I have made Kerbals go into orbit of Kerban once, and only launched one unmanned rocket.

So after scrounging enough funds and science to unlock satellites, I built my first satellite in this campaign: the Sattle I-a. (I also built part of an identical second satellite: the imaginatively named Sattle I-B). I had been hurting for funds, so I was totally stoked when I got two equatorial satellite missions at the same time, which have been historically super easy for me. And because they were so far out (both have periapsis above 10 Mm, beyond the Mün), they paid pretty well too.

Unfortunately, my simulations didn't detect one problem: The Sattle I was equipped with the Communotron 16, which has a range of 2.5 Mm. Remote Tech meant I was unable to control the apoapsis burn, so I was unable to complete the mission. I didn't want to cancel those missions and go back to 'Explore Kerbin' missions (which I *hate*), so I thought long and hard on a better solution.

After looking hard at the numbers, I decided to redesign the Sattle I to build a massive 'space ladder' of communotrons. 5 modified Sattle I's with two communotrons would orbit Kerbal at 2.5, 3.97, 6.30, 8.25, and 10 Mm circular orbits. This means that they would have 1:2:4:6:8 orbital period ratios, but all be within 2.5 Mm of each other at their closest approach. Unfortunately, they would only align once every 3 Kerbal months, and the space ladder would only work when it was aligned. Realizing this was a daunting task, I knuckled down on the redesign ... and discovered that I had recently unlocked the Comms DTS-M1: A directional antenna with a range of 50 Mm (just past Minmus). So now all the Sattle II-a needed was two of these (I put three on just to be sure), and then it could act as both a relay for Sattle I-a, and a valid satellite target for the second equatorial satellite mission!

Now I just need to wait for it to be built. Which will take 7 more days >.> . The Sattle I will still be used for close range satellites under 2.5 Mm, as Sattle I has so few parts that the boosters can be recovered, making the Sattle I about 25% cheaper than the Sattle II, but I think the Sattle II will be the workhorse satellite for Kerbin-based unmanned missions.

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I ditched my "huge ship" idea, and decided to go for one-way missions with a small ship that can be launched into space on a launcher, powered by nuclear engines. First target - Duna. Sick and tired of just Mun and Minmus, time to stretch the legs.

Man, you should try sending out missions in multiple parts. Timing three or four ships along to a single destination is a lot of work and a lot of fun.

Not today, but yesterday, I sent (by launch) toward Eve:

1) Relay Comsat with six omni-antenna relay satellites.

2) Planetary base, with three kerbals and a rover for Eve itself.

3) Jeb, Bill and Bob on a regular Apollo style transfer ship+Lander for general science and stepping down on Gilly (which almost crashed, on Gilly. How, I do not know. Didn't even know it was possible to crash on Gilly)

Including four contracts total and the assorted science for the whole thing, it was absolutely worth it. Too bad about those kerbals down on Eve. Certainly more fun than building a huge wobbly FPS killer in LKO that has to burn for fifteen minutes to go anywhere.

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Nothing spectacular - just launching my first two communication sats.

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The sats themselves are ion powered - all they'll have to do is fine-tuning position and then later deorbit. Stack probe, antenna, batteries, xenon, 3 panels and that's it.

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Edited by rynak
why did my post magically duplicate itself? fixed
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I tried to aerobrake....apparently I do no aerobrake good. :confused: First attempt was at ~150,000m, and it did nothing. Not enough atmo that high, I guess. Second attempt was around 100,000....and that was way too much. So I said to hell with it and did a normal Hohmann transfer.

I just went to Jool this morning. Aerobraked at 122km with a 800KG probe. Saved lots of time.

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