What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Val]

Had a blast trying to fly my Viper Jet Challenge entry under the bridge at the R&D building. After having failed 10's of times while approaching from the west, I decided to give it a try approaching from the SPH. Nailed it first time.

Then I got an idea to build a Rockwell B-1 Lancer recreation. Not only am I really happy with it's looks, it also flies really, really well.

Craft file and more pictures

Edited February 24, 2016 by Val
Reference pic

[Nukeknockout]

Nice Lancer!

I did some typical contraption-based problem solving for my career mode.

Anyone who knows planes should have a bad feeling about this xD But it did what I wanted: It took off, did a midair materials science, and Valentina survived. And the other one...is a lot better than any electrically powered rover I've tried using on Kerbin.

[Red Shirt]

Woot! My first SSTA. DV says around 1000 once in orbit but I actually had several hundred more in the R.A.P.I.E.R. tanks that I transferred as needed. Despite rather bad flying, Landed on Minmus with lots of room to spare. That's when I discovered I forgot the ore drill. Anyway, Woot! SSTA (but not back - yet) on Minmus! 

Got some tweaking besides drills to do yet. I notice I have 3 solar panels. One must go as it clips the bay door. I also don't like the tail and haven't come up with a better alternative yet. Stable and pretty much hands off flying in atmosphere once a little speed is built up.

[Choctofliatrio2.0]

Planning an SSTO design. My first, if it's successful.

How does this sound: Two Nuclear engines, and one either Whiplash or Panther (which is better?)

[Frank_G]

3 minutes ago, Choctofliatrio2.0 said:

Planning an SSTO design. My first, if it's successful.

How does this sound: Two Nuclear engines, and one either Whiplash or Panther (which is better?)

Start small, light and efficient. Use a single R.A.P.I.E.R and try to bring the small one into orbit. Learn and experiment how to fly an SSTO spaceplane. Then improve and enlarge your design, using the skills you earned.

Just my opinion

[Choctofliatrio2.0]

3 minutes ago, Frank_G said:

Start small, light and efficient. Use a single R.A.P.I.E.R and try to bring the small one into orbit. Learn and experiment how to fly an SSTO spaceplane. Then improve and enlarge your design, using the skills you earned.

Just my opinion

Alright, I'll try that. The RAPIER and I don't get along, however.
Also, how long has there been a like limit?

[TopHeavy11]

Nothing yet.

[Evanitis]

9 minutes ago, Choctofliatrio2.0 said:

How does this sound: Two Nuclear engines, and one either Whiplash or Panther (which is better?)

Whiplash, if you need a pure jet engine. The Panther is tricky.

As others said, Rapiers are the easiest to get to orbit with, as it merges the properties of both engine types you need. That saves weight, but more importantly also the drag of the additional fuselages of the jet engines.

But you consider nukes. That suggests me that you want to use the SSTO for... travelling in space. That's not a too efficient way of exploration, as all your wings and gears and whatnot are dead-weight. Bringing up a conventional spacecraft as payload works better. But hell it's so cool to take a lovely spaceplane to other planets, so who cares.

If that's your plan, I suggest doing it with one nuke. Your burns will be longer, but the overall dV on orbit is higher. And you won't need any oxidizer - that's a great help. Though it's low trust alone can only lift a pretty small mk1 plane with two Whiplashes (roughly). An mk2 would probably need two nukes. Though for that size, I'd rather pick one nuke (for vacuum efficiency) and two Rapiers with just enough ox for the circularization burn.

[Choctofliatrio2.0]

4 minutes ago, Evanitis said:

Whiplash, if you need a pure jet engine. The Panther is tricky.

As others said, Rapiers are the easiest to get to orbit with, as it merges the properties of both engine types you need. That saves weight, but more importantly also the drag of the additional fuselages of the jet engines.

But you consider nukes. That suggests me that you want to use the SSTO for... travelling in space. That's not a too efficient way of exploration, as all your wings and gears and whatnot are dead-weight. Bringing up a conventional spacecraft as payload works better. But hell it's so cool to take a lovely spaceplane to other planets, so who cares.

If that's your plan, I suggest doing it with one nuke. Your burns will be longer, but the overall dV on orbit is higher. And you won't need any oxidizer - that's a great help. Though it's low trust alone can only lift a pretty small mk1 plane with two Whiplashes (roughly). An mk2 would probably need two nukes. Though for that size, I'd rather pick one nuke (for vacuum efficiency) and two Rapiers with just enough ox for the circularization burn.

That makes sense. I was thinking Nukes because it'd be easier to only pack liquid fuel.

I've tried Rapier designs, but the oxidizer is devoured right when I switch cycles. Hmmmm... more planning is needed.

[Frank_G]

19 minutes ago, Choctofliatrio2.0 said:

That makes sense. I was thinking Nukes because it'd be easier to only pack liquid fuel.

I've tried Rapier designs, but the oxidizer is devoured right when I switch cycles. Hmmmm... more planning is needed.

You might like to check my craftfile thread (link in the sig). Its out of date, but has some efficient spaceplane designs for download, if you need some examples.

[Triop]

We had a small air show today

 

[Freshmeat]

I made touchdown with probes on Bop and Eeloo. The Bop probe was a slight complication, as it originally was not intended to land, but part of a Scansat and lander package. However, after separation I discovered I had mad a classic: No antenna on the lander. Frustrated I left it, and discovered that six 6x1 panels is enough for a high-res scan, but not a biome and anormaly scan. Making the most of the cards I had dealt, I decided not to go for a full polar orbit, missing about 10% of Bop to ensure I had a good margin for setting the probe down. The rocky terrain was rather tricky, but the low gravity held the probe while I conducted all available experiments, fulfilling two contracts (I had satellite in orbit around Bop as well as Explore Bop on my list).

By comparison, my Eeloo touchdown was incredibly boring boring, and by the numbers. Eeloo is cold, flat and icy, and I don't think I will be back for a long while.

Finally, Valentina had been sitting at my LKO station after a Dres return trip for some weeks now. I got around to transfer her and a LKO rescuee to my shuttle, rendezvous with a Duna tourist return ship, transfer tourists, and rendezvous with my SSTO rocket and return. There are still four tourists waiting, but that will be another night.

[Nightshift83]

Oh this Duna mission is getting more and more exciting, little accidents here and there, resources are getting scarce and hey it's still my first Duna mission but boy and learned a lot and I will bring home scince for those nerds on Kerbin to work on for years to come!

 

As you might see the bottom tank blew off wich is good since there will not be enough fuel to drain from Daedalus anyway..

[zuuhis79]

1. Made a contact with an asteroid
2. Managed to tow it to Low Kerbin Orbit
3. Landed it near KSC
4. Carried it to KSC with a vehicle

5. Parked it in front of VAB main entrance as a reminder that everything is possible

Edited February 24, 2016 by zuuhis79

[obi_juan]

I can not make space planes... I try them many times and I only could go to orbit 1 of 5 different models (The lighter ones)... But the orbit is not enough for me I want to go the Minmus to extract ore and make travels to the Kerbin system...

In my last game I accepted That I can not make an SSTO and build a big rockets to make the same... I made several models with a dry weight of 150t to 295t with a 5200dV to go to Minmus with 16 passengers... A good solution until you want to come back to Kerbin with 12 tourist and 4 drifters Kerbals, and only 13 days left of supplies... Every time I need 2 or 3 quick loads to land in only one piece... I usually land 15 km away form KSC.

But If I want to go to any part of the Kerbol system... I will need a greenhouse to make the supplies... My best rocket until now was a 169t (dry)... So I thought... @Val made a good SSTO... like the ones that I tried to make in the past but never work... He share severals of his design, write how to put them in orbit  and some times make videos... I download his craft files and learn how to put them in orbit, and read everything that he writes on the forum on how make a SSTO...

Now I can show the beginning of the travel of GreenHouse-Raptor mk2 (GHR-2)          

Is almost stock except for some parts.

- All the fuel storage is tweaked by the Interstellar_Fuel_Switch... that is why the ship have that amount of liquid fuel.

- I use a radial fuel container from Modular Rocket Systems (made by NecroBones)

- I use the Jumbo Greenhouse from USI (made by RoverDude*) to resupply my ship, and the nuclear reactor...

The ship have space for 6 Kerbals but I only introduce 2 Kerbals (a pilot and engineer) to let a private room for the two crew members.

(*) I still playing KSP thanks to the RoverDude's mods.

Edited February 25, 2016 by obi_juan

[Choctofliatrio2.0]

So I tried a spaceplane. I did a single RAPIER design. Worked alright until I changed modes. The RAPIER LEAKS oxidizer. It'd probably be more efficient to just spray the oxidizer out the back.

The second design used two Whiplashes and an LV-909. Worked much better. But that's a relative term. It flew for a while, but eventually it fell back down and landed.

[Geschosskopf]

Things got freaky in the Sarnus system.

 

[AlphaMensae]

I'm still tinkering around with my main Laythe and Tylo lander and other Jool mission craft, and I ended up finally making a successful single-stage rover-delivery (that's that 10-ton rover in my previous pics) that can work on both Laythe and Tylo. Came to 180t without the rover.  Now I'm making skycranes that can deliver the rover so it can drive to the lander, as another option for the station...probably only makes sense on Tylo.  

And oh yes, also have to make a Nuke Lightbulb tug to haul that lander around.

 

Edited February 25, 2016 by Laguna

[Frank_G]

4 hours ago, Choctofliatrio2.0 said:

So I tried a spaceplane. I did a single RAPIER design. Worked alright until I changed modes. The RAPIER LEAKS oxidizer. It'd probably be more efficient to just spray the oxidizer out the back.

The second design used two Whiplashes and an LV-909. Worked much better. But that's a relative term. It flew for a while, but eventually it fell back down and landed.

A few more tips:

- When you switch engine cycle, your craft should be faster than 1400 m/s and above 22.000 meters of altitude.

- When you switch engine cycle, dont forget to close the air intakes to reduce drag

- Meeting the above points will allow your spaceplane to accelerate at much less throttle - in words: below 25 to 10% when switching to closed cycle. This will increase the burntime by a large margin.

Besides building an SSTO spaceplane, flying it right is a key factor. Get out of the denser part of the atmosphere fast and build up your speed there to save fuel.

I hope this helps.  

(maybe its time for you to open a thread for further discussions)

Edited February 25, 2016 by Frank_G

[inigma]

She still flies. See link in my sig.

Edited February 25, 2016 by inigma

[kotomikun]

Allee and Urte's ionic tanker returned from its 4-and-a-half-year trek to Jool and all its moons, and by "returned" I mean "was about to zip past Kerbin at 10 kilometers per second, spending less than a day in its SOI." That wouldn't do, so several hours of xenon expulsion was in order...

 

[Mikki]

I have like no time to play KSP sadly, so i tried FAR for the thrills, and i discovered that my stockparts Space Shuttle flies! Thanks to @ferram4, awesome man!

[Hotaru]

SS Arnold left KSC on a crew rotation run which will also test its ability to land on the Mun and take off again, which is important because the plan is for it to be used at the next window for a tourist run to Duna and Ike.

 

It rendezvoused with the Rumfoord in Kerbin orbit to pick up the skeleton crew who had been processing the data from Rumfoord's Duna mission, and deliver a full crew for its upcoming departure for Jool.

 

It then refueled (completely draining the LKO fuel depot in the process) and headed for Base Ardan on the Mun.

 

Meanwhile, the Rumfoord starts its two-year transit to Jool with a series of perfectly-timed 90-second periapsis kick burns thanks to the Maneuver Node Splitter mod, which thankfully seems to work fine in 1.0.2.

Edited February 25, 2016 by Hotaru

[Schetefan]

Today I designed most of the stations and vehicles for my mission to Duna:

 

The Pegasus station, it will be set in orbit around Duna to research every returned data

A planetary base I wanna set on Ike and Duna

A Rover I wanna use on Duna and maybe on Ike

My Duna Launch Vehicle, which will be landed on Duna with all tanks empty, except the the tanks of the landing stage. Once landed on Duna it will mine ore and produce fuel out of it.

The last thing I designed is the Hermes, which will be used to transfer the crew to Duna and bring it back to Kerbin

[Val]

I made some small improvements to my Rockwell B-1 Lancer recreation and recorded 3 small clips to showcase it's great flying characteristics.

Cosmetically I made the dip in the spine more pronounced and added the little fins on the nose. The fins also allowed me to improve it's stability when engaging flaps and spoilers.