What did you do in KSP1 today?

[KerbMav]

Landed an expedition on Mun - first landing since Jeb's daring solo scouting mission - brought more science gizmos this time as they are now available.

They also dropped off a satellite in orbit which needed some serious changes to it orbit - mainly reversing its direction completely ...

Did a second (third in total) Mun mission - something is off with my landings, I use way to much dV than I expect each time.

Dared to do my first ground survey mission ever since contracts entered the game - a bottle of KIS's Reserve EVA-fuel helped.

Build a plane that flew and landed on the old runway - nothing broke, just flying with the keyboard is ... will set up a joystick after the weekend.

Build something to land 15 kerbals on Minmus - which collapsed on the launchpad.

Build something else to land 15 kerbals on Minmus - did not yet try it, since three of them are still sitting on Mun and calculating if they have enough fuel to get home ...

And as usual: Took way to few screenshots ...

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ModuleWheelFix

Edited May 22, 2015 by KerbMav

[Fail-Man 3D]

The DropMax has served me well since mid-2014, but it has a few issies:

• Fission reactor is buried in the middle of the ship, requires a ModuleManager patch (pumpable KSPI UF4 and nuclear waste) for refueling
  
• 17 VASIMRs leaves a bit to be desired TWR-wise
  
• Argon is heavy and expensive
  
• 70 parts and 6 RAM-hungry mods for the ultra-minimalist export version
  
• Central VASIMR's protective shroud panels tend to mulch other engines when they decouple (I tried to fix this with a cage, it only made things worse).
  

I spent a good chunk of today working on a launch vehicle (and a badly-done composite picture thereof) for its successor.

Meet the SHSLS ThrowMax (huge pictures here and here), SHSLS's answer to the DropMax's many problems.

Lessons Learned:

• Fission reactor located in the nose, right underneath the docking port (EVA refueling not tested)
  
• 9 MHD thrusters and 8 hydrogen VASIMRs strike a good balance of TWR and fuel economy
  
• Hydrogen is light (a little too light to launch easily, in fact) and dirt cheap
  
• Only 53 parts, and much cheaper than the DropMax.
  
• Not prone to spontaneous engine destruction
  

Edited May 22, 2015 by Fail-Man 3D
Add link to huge composite picture, change phrasing

[problemecium]

I guess you lose some and you win some - yesterday, I mentioned, was frustrating and relatively unproductive, but today I got a LOT done. Clearing the tech tree in 1.0 has taken me far longer than it did the last few versions, and consequently the first Jool transfer is less than a month away, and I haven't even started designing a ship for it! I've set a goal for myself to try to clear the whole tree before I go so that I have free rein to build my mothership as I see fit, so unsurprisingly I've started to get a little nervous and have been rushing the last few days to gather as much Science as possible.

Today I installed new Science farms around both the Mun and Minmus and have started raking it in by batches of hundreds at a time. I might just make it!

It wasn't without its own fair share of frustration though - one Mun landing ended up taking more fuel than expected, and poor Jeanette had to push the lander onto the docking port - if you think docking with no RCS is hard, try docking using a Kerbal! >.<

Oh, and I also merged my old station with the ring station I built yesterday, and am considering moving it up to a 320km orbit for performance reasons (rumor has it the terrain system turns off at 300, which should mean a better framerate):

By sheer coincidence, the inner diameter of my ring station exactly matched the length of my old station core!

Edited May 22, 2015 by parameciumkid

[Superfluous J]

I launched 2 ships.

The first was streamlined to death and flew like a dream. I also recovered all the non-fuel, non-SRB parts of the launch stage. Efficiency FTW!

The second may as well have been a Borg Cube, it was so non-aerodynamic. I also just dropped its (many) boosters into the ocean or onto towns or whatever during ascent. Who needs efficiency?

Neither ship had flipping problems and both followed pretty decent gravity turns. Because I'm a baws.

[oversoul]

I launched a space station core (does anyone else call theirs 'KSS'?) and built barely not enough fuel.

So I complete the 'burn' to apogee with the two sets of four RCS thrusters and the 250 unit MP tank. Then I circularized it with said thrusters. It only took 26% of the MP to enter a stable 80km x 80km orbit.

[Cuky]

finalized my design for a small crew shuttle. Atmospheric testing went good, though I had to remove a tail fin and put on a bit smaller wings because it wouldn't fit inside 2,5m fairing. Although it still glided very well problem was that I have lost almost all yaw control and that it really liked to go into huge side slip whenever I turned. Because of that I use airbrakes as rudders while those 4 small Tier0 fins are there to prevent it loosing yaw control. Also, if needed, RCS can be use to help and stabilize it. Parachutes are on just for testing so that I don't kill my Kerbals.

Now I plan to launch it up on a suborbital flight to test how it is flying during re-entry. It everything works well I will then design a small orbital module that will be attached on the back which will have batteries, power generation and a docking port, all of which will be jettisoned before re-entry.

[Jesrad]

Yesterday I finished designing my Duna Colony Push group of vehicles. That's a science outpost designed to land unpowered (...hopefully) on Duna, an Ike&return manned lander, and a satellite for the occasional science requests and completing a juicy contract.

The crews underwent months of training for this Duna Push. I have high-level scientists everywhere and an excellent pilot flying the Outpost to Duna. No orange shirts though, because I have bigger plans for them saved for later.

Everything is now in LKO waiting for the launch window, and I've upgraded all my buildings to the max as well which has left my agency starved of cash and crew... Perfect reasons to go and grab other agencies' own stuff and staff, I say:

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I did one more grab'n'snatch before bed after that, my funds are purring happily again now.

[WinkAllKerb'']

just sharing the code for thoose interested.

[percyPrune]

Cuky:

I have lost almost all yaw control

Have you tried angling the wings upwards at 5 -10 degrees (called 'dihedral')? I have a similar ship which is very flyable with that tweak. I am even confident enough in it to remove the parachutes

[Big Kerbie]

Yesterday, I got a contract package for Minmus science and exploration. Got this before anything for the mun. So, what the hey, lets go! I had orbited only twice prior to the launch. Shouldn't be a big deal. Stick on more fuel and a bigger engine. Orbit, no sweat. Orbit capture at Minmus, uh, yeah outta gas! Well, still have some monopropellant. Orbit shrunk a bit, but now I'm outta that too. 19 days of life support left. I'm going to have to send Jeb out therewith an extra seat and bring back my pilot with all his science data. And maybe land on Minmus while were there. It will be a great challenge at my current tech level.

[Mister Dilsby]

Grabbed a pod somebody left floating around near the Mun.

Got it on the claw and in the bay just fine, only clips the doors a little bit. Hopefully the AIRBRAKES will slow it down enough to survive re-entry with no heatshield... oh, and it's going to hit atmosphere right when my crew is supposed to leave for Duna, so hopefully I won't forget to drive it, either

[Cuky]

Cuky:

Have you tried angling the wings upwards at 5 -10 degrees (called 'dihedral')? I have a similar ship which is very flyable with that tweak. I am even confident enough in it to remove the parachutes

I totally forgot about that option. I will try in my next modification of the craft, re-entry test was successful as I had nice control through it, but will need to modify wings because if I come into thicker atmosphere with anything in my fuel tank it wants to keep far away from prograde.

Thanks for advice

[Hotaru]

Successfully tested an air-portable rover inspired by the old Mako from Mass Effect.

It uses rockets rather than parachutes because it's mainly meant to be dropped onto the Mun, Minmus, or other airless bodies. It has about 350 m/s of delta-v, and the landings are quite a bit smoother than the original Mako.

Crew portrait after first successful drop. Rover driver (Bill) and dropship crew (Lisbel, Hanbald, Desbin, Kirfry).

[Plume & Akakak]

On the way back home, everyone onboard the Kernsback 6 kept wondering why that empty, impractical shuttle was still clawed to the belly of the ship.

They yelled hard during reentry.

No more grumbles after landing.

[Merinsan]

I just sent a science mission to the Mun, and had a slight staging problem. While going in for the first landing, I staged to drop some drop tanks, and deployed my parachutes at the same time. I noticed it at that point and figured I'd deal with it later.

Anyway, some 20 minutes later I am burning through the atmosphere, and realized I had my parachutes still deployed. I started the engine to slow down - which was useless due to the fact my fuel was virtually already depleted. At this point I figured I was a goner, so I staged to drop the engine and landing gear. Due to the drag, it got stuck under the capsule, and stayed there all the way down.

The ground came up really fast, I hit at just over 100m/s....and after the cloud of smoke dissipated, I realized I had just witnessed the most EPIC LITHOBRAKING of all time! The capsule had somehow survived. I guess the debris below it helped cushion the impact, and I only lost a Mystery goo unit and thermometer in the impact.

My only regret is no video of it.

[ShadowZone]

Working on my Normandy replica. Structural and engine performance tests. Next: Finishing the hull.

[vicwarrior]

The ground came up really fast, I hit at just over 100m/s....and after the cloud of smoke dissipated, I realized I had just witnessed the most EPIC LITHOBRAKING of all time! The capsule had somehow survived. I guess the debris below it helped cushion the impact, and I only lost a Mystery goo unit and thermometer in the impact.

Thats called a hardware assisted landing.

[Tw1]

Well, that could've gone better.

Flying upside down gives better views, and better reception.

Structural failure! Come on lifting body physics, do your stuff!

Even landed it safely.

Cool kerbs don't look at explosions.

Then again, running away screaming lessens the effect.

All in a days work for a kerbal

Working on my Normandy replica. Structural and engine performance tests. Next: Finishing the hull.

Looking good!

[xiziz]

Flew to another survey point 750km from KSC. This plane should have a crossrange of about 1600km. But it takes so long time on basic jets!

Then I started working on my KSP1 munshot program. Got a lifter capable of lifting ~14t into orbit as an end result. Next time Val and Bob are off to the Mun, hopefully getting to test the munlander.

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[RyanRising]

Finally made an SSTO that works in 1.0! But I gave up on stock aerodynamics and used Ferram Aerospace. Now this whole "SSTO" thing seems easy.

I haven't re-entered it yet, though, that oughta be fun. And by "Fun" I mean "Full of F9"

[UFO Researcher]

I kill Jebedhia Kerman trying to do an altitude record and jump on Kerbin!

[Jouni]

I continued tweaking my favorite plane.

Fully fueled, it's a spaceplane that can deliver a bunch of passengers to LKO. With a lighter fuel load, it's a stunt plane that can use the VAB helipad as a runway.

[Goddess Bhavani]

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Today is my first off day from a busy work schedule and I built something ridiculously complicated and over-engineered. Some of my previous helicopter designs already feature some sort of complexity layer above and beyond usual KSP craft but for this project, I went balls to the wall and added these features:

• 4 tilting nacelles!
  
• Supplementary articulation on all 4 rotor heads for precise hover control
  
• Analog 2-axis rotor trim on all 4 rotors
  
• Controllable collective pitch
  
• Rotors fold up to conserve hangar space / look as cool as a Transformer!
  
• Extreme hover stability
  
• And a whole lot of possibilities I won't have time to test right meow. The maximum takeoff weight is way in excess of 70 tons, limited by how much collective pitch and RPM you can run until the stock aerodynamics model starts acting up!
  

The original Boeing-Vertol V-44 design does not have a tail, but I found it necessary, so I used a similar treatment from the V-44 inspired shown in Edge of Tomorrow and gave it a V-tail.

[percyPrune]

Brought the last lot of tourists (for now) back to Kerbin, including some cheapskates who only paid for a trip to LKO.

Tail-less re-entry vehicle pic for Cuky:

I've now ended up with this in LKO. It wasn't supposed to get this big, it just 'growed':

Left to right: Mun RoLander, 2 passenger modules for adding extra capacity to the tail of the RoLander, for those who just want to go to Mun orbit (also double as departure lounge when not required), Main fuel tank, Minimus RoLander, Tug, Science lab, Re-useable refueller and (finally) Passenger Re-entry vehicle

I'm thinking of calling it the 'SS Lagfest'

[TWillard]

Yesterday I tried building planes and flying them.

That's no problem.

The landing though...

Fire. Fire everywhere.