What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Technical Ben]

I nailed it.
[img]http://benart.www.idnet.com/nail.jpg[/img]
While using mechjeb to get readings on airbreaking, I forgot to actually check my periapsis. Thankfully, I was just above the mountain, and skimmed a valley. Orbiter is fine. Mind you it was the first time I actually had any significant ablator burn off. Only like 10% left now. Was due to me taking quickest arrival instead of lowest DV.

[Proteus]

going to lave and from there to eli
[IMG]http://i66.tinypic.com/2utkmxs.png[/IMG]

[Venusgate]

Over the past few days I've been playing with a new-to-me style of extra-kerbinestrial exploration.
There are three phases, one, an atmospheric vessel (I wasnt far enough in the science tree to make a spaceplane that could bring up 14 tons of fuel, but that's the eventual goal)
A nuclear powered transfer stage that hauls a 9t lander to one of the two moons,
And a 3100m/s dV lander that leaves the transfer stage in orbit.

Each one of the stages are optimized for their role, rather than having to make every stage flexible, and ofcourse, having to haul two NERVs up into 120x120

It makes my station useful too! :D

[imgur]Qk4l0[/imgur]

[Red Shirt]

Sorry no pictures but today's mission was a nail biter. After getting much help from the forum, I have learned to make orbit with a spaceplane. So today I slapped together a new 20 part plane (includes RCS and solar part). Left the runway climbed to 7k and set to about a 10 degree climb. Switched to rockets at 26k (well over 1000 m/s). Plane got a little loose and pitched and rolled. Fought for control. My son walked in at this point and said the guy on the left (Bill) looked a little green. I assured him they are all green. He said, no that one looks like he is going to be sick. Kind of had to agree. Circularized.

Used mechjeb to mark KSP (because clouds and darkness - why did I think a nighttime landing was a good idea?). Aborted MJ now that I had a location. Set a node to reenter with landing marker at west coast of continent - another forum tip I learned. Began reentry. Switched engines back to airbreather mode. Set airbrakes. Nose up high and gentle rolling S curves until heat and speed were under control. As I went to fire up engines, I noticed I had miscalculated my fuel requirements. Engines belched their last just west of the mountains about 170km from the runway. Hit R and used RCS to hold the nose up as best as I could. Then shortly after I lost electrical power (batteries would have been nice). At 10k over the mountains the last of the mono was gone. I thought about hitting revert but I had to see how this ended. The plane would still swoop left and right but I was barely keeping the nose above prograde. Speed dropped to about 45m/s when the front wheel touched the grass 37km west of the runway. Set the brakes and held the steering straight while the plane bounced a few times before stopping. All involved breathed a sigh of relief. I love this game.

Tomorrow I put some fuel in the empty wings and add the batteries I forgot. Jeb volunteered to fly. Bill is not so sure.

[DunaticFringe]

I just completed a contract to put a satellite in a specific orbit of the Mun. I just upgraded my mission control to fully upgraded status so I can have an unlimited number of contracts selected, but I plan to just complete all of my remaining contracts before selecting a lot of new ones and I plan to start my Munar landing program. Thinking of having a 3 manned direct decent design instead of Munar orbit rendezvous. I just need to design a lander with good wide base and low center of gravity. I have a bad history of tipping over a lot on landings on the Mun.

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/xI3Mznu.png[/IMG] Edited November 20, 2015 by DunaticFringe

[Kaiser82]

landed on Moho. And by landed i mean touched down and tipped over, causing a pylon to explode and a few solar panels to rip off. everyone is alive, but the Kara Thrace isnt going anywhere after this one.

[Billygoat_J]

Welcome to Jeb's Truckstop, home of world-famous kerosene-smoked ribs and current record holder for most [COLOR=#141823][FONT=helvetica]Welcome to Jeb's Truckstop, home of world-famous kerosene-smoked ribs and current record holder for most Kerbals rescued by a truckstop. [/FONT][/COLOR][COLOR=#141823][FONT=helvetica]Jeb got her to orbit with FAR more fuel to spare than expected (thus the longishness). The Apollo-style crew pod, originally intended to return a couple new launchies after their first spacewalk instead ended up filled with three (count 'em!) wayward rescues from LKO whose stores of snacks had reached critical levels.

[IMG]https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfp1/t31.0-8/12265934_10100533510433049_2294027687113023830_o.jpg[/IMG]

Thanks to its resounding success, KSP officials have informed Jeb they now want to use him and his Truckstop as a stepping stone to Duna. Negotiations were stalled, but are picking up again now that Gene Kerman appears to have convinced Jeb that it will not, in fact, involve anyone physically stepping on him.

[IMG]https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/t31.0-8/12184230_10100533510453009_7585809440359394579_o.jpg[/IMG]

Actually built this a couple weeks ago, so I've got more stuff now. It was, to that point, the biggest thing I'd gotten into orbit, and I was amazed how much spare fuel it had. I've since started trying to be a little more technical about my delta-v.[/FONT][/COLOR]

[Choctofliatrio]

Put the Frostbite 1 lander in Minmus orbit, gonna land tomorrow if I have the time.

[KerBlammo]

I completed my first ever SSTO flight!!!!

Its a still a prototype and very much a WIP but this test flight succeeded far beyond expectations! Its pretty overpowered in the lower atmo but got into a final orbit of 258x138 km. I could have circularized at 258km but wasn't sure if I had enough dV to de-orbit from there (I had forgot to put a MechJeb on it so did not have my usual readouts). The operational version will haul cargo to a lower orbit so this flight indicates it may have enough dV to haul an additional cargo bay placed at the CoM.

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/uIGzIxv.png[/IMG]

I de-orbited by lowering pe to 48km. I Ran out of oxidizer about 75% of the way through the burn and used the auxiliary monoprop engines to complete the rest of the burn. Reentry was very smooth and there was some liquid fuel left in the tanks so the RAPIERs could be re-lighted. I did not even attempt to land at any given location but at least it came down over land and not the ocean!

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/0ra3BZj.png[/IMG]

Although the plane is not as maneuverable as a glider as my air-launched rocket plane, it was very well behaved on final approach and landing and touched down very gently!

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/uhj0Su1.png[/IMG]

A good landing is one you can walk away from. A great one is one where the aircraft is still flyable afterwards!

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/Y9Y00pE.png[/IMG]

I did not expect to succeed with a SSTO tonight, so I am really happy this actually worked! Its right up there with landing on the Mun for the first time!

[Draconiator]

Today I'm working on something for Hatbat's series, well a few things actually, but I'm on the fence about putting details on the Duckbill, or leaving it as is. Using the RT-5 as a JATO:

[IMG]https://i.gyazo.com/0b6b3d205a0f1adb555f0e97d3c29436.png[/IMG] Edited November 21, 2015 by Draconiator

[Sidereus]

I designed a simple rover for Minmus that worked way better than I thought it would. I had a mission to take seismic readings at four fairly closely placed positions, so rather than build a probe I figured a rover would work better. I also had to rescue a Kerbal stranded in low-Minmus orbit, so I decided to slap a command seat on it in order to collect more science.

[IMGUR]PjwLF[/IMGUR]


The object 15.5 km away in the first screenshot is my starting position. I was looking for a relatively flat area to land, and ended up farther away from the mission area than I intended to. So I drove the rover down to the mission area, did the readings, then flew my return ship (which had a probe core) down to pick up my Kerbal rather than go all the way back.

The rover was mounted to the top of the return vehicle and I used the RCS thrusters to place it on the ground. I found that the wheels were basically useless for gaining forward momentum, so I used the RCS thrusters instead, which worked very well. With the reaction wheels going it was extremely stable all the way down the mission area at around 20m/s, save for the one time I fat-fingered my keyboard and caused a flip (which is why it only has one set of solar panels; it originally had another set mounted in back). At the end I only depleted a little over half the RCS. Gravity did most of the work. Edited November 21, 2015 by Sidereus

[Bev7787]

I made TSTOs

[DunaticFringe]

The Munar landing program is in full operation. Had first successful Munar landing in KSP 1.0.5. Originally, I was planning a direct ascent approach, but due to weight restrictions for my launch pad, I went with Munar orbit rendezvous with two launches and assembling complete vehicle in Kerbin orbit. Everything went well and combination of good lander design and landing on mostly flat area in Farside Crater helped a lot. I decided to bring back the lander to Kerbin just to see how much Delta-V it would take. That lead to a lot of fireworks on reentry. Crew landed safely.

Plans now are to continue both Munar and Minmus landing programs and look to establishing bases and searching for resources. I am also looking into my first mission to Duna.

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/E6g0PFc.png[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/EXPrwCS.png[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/IobZ2su.png[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/hBmA5pl.png[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/heZiWFl.png[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/2QbQwG9.png[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/upjmIzp.png[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/XXeUzdu.png[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/5qbQC4j.png[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/hPGexo9.png[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/6I45vjP.png[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/0zx95YY.png[/IMG] Edited November 21, 2015 by DunaticFringe

[Kyrt Malthorn]

I'm doing well in my 1.0.5 Hard Mode I think. :D

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/qc4l4on.png[/IMG]


And aside from the late Sigwig Kerman due to an untested reentry vehicle, no kerbals were harmed to get me this far!

A good chunk of science I brought home today from Minmus - not an extensive biome hopping, but I started with a flag contract and another to "measure the temperature on Minmus near <this probe>". This probe had a thermometer but no means of moving, but I took the contract and sent a dedicated mission. I didn't realize those contracts gave you one location at a time and led you through several biomes - but it was convenient and I had a perfect amount of fuel as it turned out. Fergee Kerman is my first kerbal to set foot on Minmus - or any other celestial body! - in this savegame. I was a bit nervous sometimes. No reloading, no going back... tons of science riding on a reentry I was only reasonably sure would work... But it did! :D

Details of aforementioned mission to Minmus:

[imgur]Yl6ES[/imgur]

[ROXunreal]

My first space station is officially operational!

The [I]Minmus Polar Orbiter[/I] got a reusable lander, a life support and basic power module, and an escape capsule. Running the plant growth experiment now for a nice fat sum of money when it's done.
Next on the agenda for this station is more Station Science modules and a proper Gigantor solar array module, though this will have to wait until I research them.

I have two other stations in Kerbin and Mun orbits but these are still uninhabited and only contain the basic habitation module, will slowly expand them later...

[img]http://i.imgur.com/DLMPeyp.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i.imgur.com/KpVStcL.jpg[/img]

[Combatsmithen]

Holy crap. This is the largest thread ive ever seen in my entire life. and I thought the BD armory thread was long.....

[luizopiloto]

Jeb got Bob for a ride...
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/M7lSFnW.jpg[/IMG]

[Jouni]

I did some experiments with recoverable interplanetary probes.

[IMG]http://jltsiren.kapsi.fi/ksp/1.0.5/probe_reentry_1.jpeg[/IMG]

This probe/lander pair survived reentry at interplanetary speeds quite well...

[IMG]http://jltsiren.kapsi.fi/ksp/1.0.5/probe_reentry_2.jpeg[/IMG]

...except one of the landing struts, which wasn't completely protected by the heat shield.

The MechJeb box looks big and ugly at this scale.

[Guest]

Today I came back to Project Mun after finally getting around to updating to v1.0.5.

[justidutch]

I am normally not a plane builder, but in the science labs had started a thread about a supersonic business jet thats currently on the drawing board called the Aerion AS2. I really like the look of it and wondered if there's any basis in reality, so I tried it:

[IMG]http://www.aerionsupersonic.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Technology-Overview.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://www.aerionsupersonic.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/technical-specs-image1.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://jscript.ca/ksp-images/Aerion/Screen%20Shot%202015-11-21%20at%2012.29.10%20AM.png[/IMG]

[IMG]http://jscript.ca/ksp-images/Aerion/Screen%20Shot%202015-11-21%20at%2012.29.17%20AM.png[/IMG]

[IMG]http://jscript.ca/ksp-images/Aerion/Screen%20Shot%202015-11-21%20at%2012.29.24%20AM.png[/IMG]

[URL="http://jscript.ca/ksp-images/Aerion/Aerion%20AS4.zip"]Craft file is here[/URL]

I've only flown it twice but both times made it to a circularized orbit, albeit with hardly any fuel to spare. Once in space it handles quite goofy because of the CoT misaligned with CoM, don't use throttle more than 30%. To get to orbit I just pitched up ~20% the entire way until it was time to switch engine modes (the '0' button). I have not tried landing it after orbit but imagine it will be difficult as the CoM will have shifted; you'll see the fuel tanks are all mostly behind CoM so its flight characteristics will most likely be bad. But, it was a fun couple hours getting it to the point where it is. Not perfect, the tail is not right but I had to compromise to get everything balanced enough to fly. Enjoy!

[HoloYolo]

[img]http://i.imgur.com/GIHLNf0.jpg?1[/img]
The Bearded Dragon Bomber. I want to release it, but Dropbox is under maintenance. Cool, huh?

[brianorca]

Completed a Jool mission I spent a few months on. Started in 1.0.4, somehow did not break it with 1.0.5.
[imgur]YZsyy[/imgur]
Did not plan on a Tylo landing, but was also surprised when simulation of the Lythe ascent ran out of dV, so I "skipped" that. Edited November 21, 2015 by brianorca

[RocketPilot573]

This plane is cool when it works.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/K68nx0H.png[/img]

[Draconiator]

Via BD Armory, I wanted to see how two of my fighter designs did against each other, so I pitted one squadron each (3 ships each, 6 ships total) against each other. Not the result I was expecting; the bigger Diamondbacks obliterated the smaller more maneuverable Delta fighters. I'm actually flying the Duckbill as a mobile observation platform, which put me in conflict with the Deltas the whole time.

[video=youtube;NZzwO-jI8Ao]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZzwO-jI8Ao[/video]

[Kaiser82]

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/KdbLvb9.png[/IMG]

If youre wondering why there are two rovers, its because some idiot at the VAB forgot to attach a way to decouple the one on top, so another had to be flown in.