What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Astrofox]

Just wasted a solid 30 minutes of my life trying to record the reentry of the Dyna-Soar I made yesterday.

Darn you OBS!

[Cuky]

I had 1st successful atmospheric flight of new shuttle built with new parts from latest Cormorant Aeronology pack. Just a short flight with takeoff assisted by hacking gravity and enabling infinite fuel and then gliding it back home without cheats.

[Fearless Son]

So in the last couple of days, I landed a scientific expedition on Minmus' midlands doing an Apollo-style mission with an inexpensive transition module for returning the crew to Kerbin, and a science lander that remains in orbit and can be reused on future missions that come to dock with it and top it off.  

Next, I had a couple of contracts to fulfill.  One of them involved getting a bunch of ore from Minmus, the other involved putting a surface base on Minmus that could hold twelve and had an IRSU.  Only problem is, I am not quite ready to start a surface base yet (I have not unlocked all the parts that I want to use for a modular design.)  So I reached a compromise: I would send up a drilling unit that would return to Kerbin, and a detachable habitat unit that would remain on Minmus in case someone gets stranded and needs a place to get freeze-dried Snacks.

Here is the habitat module docking with the driller module:

Tragically, I forgot to put a comm antenna on the habitat module, therefor voiding the contract for a surface base, and I only discovered this once I got to Minmus orbit.  So I sent out another module with antenna on it to insert itself between the driller and the habitat in Minmus orbit.  Then came the landing:

One of the thermal control system panels broke off during the communication unit docking, along with a few solar panels.  Let that be a lesson to me to retract them before docking.  Still, it had plenty of redundancy in those departments and they were light enough that the mass was not any more off-center than the control systems could compensate for.  At least landing here and starting the drills got both the contracts satisfied.  

After I had enough ore (and cracked enough of it to fully refuel) I took off straight up, then turned around and dropped the habitat before turning laterally and making a stabilization burn.  Once fully stable, I switched to the habitat and brought it down for a soft landing with its single tiny engine and small fuel supply:

I doubt I will use this as the basis for anything else (not well suited for extending operations) but at least I know it proves its own concept (and it looks pretty cool as a space shelter.)  

After that it was just a matter of getting the drilling rig back to Kerbin.  I had plenty of spare ore left in the tank to make more fuel, but even that just accelerated my return rather than was necessary.  Conservative aerobreaking would have gotten me down eventually, but I used the engines to slow it down so it only required two passes to get down into the ocean near the poles.  A couple of the landing gear burned up on reentry though, which is a sign about how aggressively I brought it in.  Still, that was 50K credits recovered from the driller, so yay!  

[Triop]

Played hide and seek all day in the temple, time to go home...

Edited June 19, 2016 by Triop

[Astrofox]

Another hour doing the same thing. Nope. It doesn't want to work with me. Yes, this is a continuation on the whole Dyna-Soar insane reentry thing.

Does anyone know how to make OBS work properly?

[UnusualAttitude]

Replaced my MEO and Geostationary communications network, launching whole flocks of satellites with a Carderie spaceplane. Upon releasing them one-by-one from the cargo bay, they floated away into space like helium-filled balloons, except with RTGs...

Spoiler

 

 

Edited June 19, 2016 by UnusualAttitude

[Zer0Winds]

I got a rover stuck inside a crater inside the East Crater on the Mun. It's been many many hours, and the slope is too steep... I'm still trying. I will explore more of the Mun. I also failed (three times) to bring a rover to Jebediah on the Mun Science Outpost; Alpha Outpost. He's not impressed.

[Mjarf]

Tested my newly built 2nd generation Odin class interplanetary cruiser with a trip to Duna, it performed beautifully. The new lander I designed performed fairly well, but I will probably go back to using a Mk1 lander can to keep the weight down. It could take off from Duna with delta-v to spare when it reached orbit, but it was quite sluggish.

The launch nearly crashed the local fuel market:

En route to Duna, I'm loving these nuclear lightbulb engines:

Jeb likes big engines :

Arrived at Duna, about to launch the landing craft, there's an extra tank of monoprop in the hangar/cargobay to re-fuel it for multiple landings:

Jeb safely landed in one of the long valleys on Duna:

Jeb got curious about the nucelar reactor when he got back from Duna "This thing heats my dinner?":

Jeb also took a trip to Ike, he seems to like small moons:

 

Edited June 19, 2016 by Mjarf

[FlyingCola]

On April 12, 2016 at 7:44 PM, Triop said:

Nice, did you get back as well ?

Welcome to the forum

Yep, sorry for the late reply. Today, I was sending mappers to the Jool 5. Laythe is so cool. (ScanSat)

[Astrofox]

Hey Guys! I have a video!

 

I made it myself!

This was based upon the stuff I mentioned a bit earlier, and I finally got a video to work!

Anyway, the reentry stuff begins around 9:50 in.

Sorry that there's no sound and that it's blurry.

[Brownhair2]

22 hours ago, Triop said:

Enjoying the view...

Nice ship!

I went to Dres!

My scanning probe had enough delta-V after stopping by Duna that I decided to send it to Dres as well. I think I'll leave it there.

[KamenRiderzero1]

My new, self sufficient (hopefully), autonomous deep space explorer;

 

I give you the K.S.S. Anton Yelchin, carried into space atop a "monolith class" booster.

the upper section of the craft is an remote fuel tender. It is actually double ended. One end is ment to mine smaller asterodis with the capture claw. the other is for soft landings on larger bodies.

 

[Mjp1050]

I forgot how beautiful space could be until I was reminded by this glorious Kerbinrise...

Edited June 20, 2016 by Mjp1050

[purpleivan]

I blew up stuff (in a good cause).

All credit to Xaiier's "Time Control" plugin.

[AlamoVampire]

Well, I spent the last 3 days and a combined 5 hours trying to set up my Titan Class Interplanetary Transport. It was one heck of a fight. Between crashes <game> and odd fuel flow behaviors and uh staging errors, it took some time to nail down. BUT, I think I got it! 3 pictures: First is on launch, and yes, thats essentially 4 Saturn IVB's shoving it into orbit. Next is on orbit checking out its lateral cargo bays and shielded docking ports with the Mun making a cameo rise. Final is on orbit buttoned up. Mun and Minmus looking down at it.

Crew Capacity: 40. 2 pilots, 1 engineer 1 scientist.

Edited June 20, 2016 by AlamoVampire

[Vermil]

Jeez, I'm overrun by this thread. I have about +40 pages to read. I surfed this thread a few days back, but started hundreds of pages back. Didn't go so far.

- Anyway: I've felt a bit overwhelmed by the challenge of Eve for some time, which is why developments and testing is rather occasional and slow. And I have so many other plans for 'fun' things I intend to do, on Mun, Duna, moons - there you go, proof that I don't consider Eve 'fun' anymore - that will be scheduled ahead of any manned Eve expedition anyway. Finally, I have downloaded some mods. Yes, Vermil's dependence on stock parts is coming to an end. It's not much, just Necrobone's SpaceY 5m and 7.5m parts, and some command pods, because those are the things I've been annoyed at missing.
Still, I was going to do the major challenges with stock parts, wasn't I? So the mods aren't installed yet. Instead I've looked at where I stand with Eve. I had sort of lost faith with Orpheus, but why not continue some testing? Always learns something. I had an Orpheus in orbit since an earlier launch test. (Magma superlifter).

So: Re-entry test with Orpheus.

 

It did remarkably well. Worked almost exactly to plan. Of course, Eve's thicker atmosphere, higher gravity and the greater energies involved will make everything a bit different. But this is the way I do it. The way a Kermin based space agency would do it. I don't use Hyper Edit. So, as much as possible has to be tested at home. Then there will be unmanned dress-rehearsal missions to Eve. Big, expensive and time consuming. We don't do this because it's easy. We choose to do this because it's hard.

 

 

One big question is how do I get Orpheus to Eve? But nevermind that now. Orpheus did a beautiful re-entry. And actually, if I had had another 1000-1500 m I would probably have been able to land it (I'm gonna do landing tests next). So it might work on Eve. I'm counting on the deeper and thicker atmosphere to let me transition to parachutes without braking with rockets.

 

But towards the end of the test, an important fact was learned. I'm ejecting the stabilizer boom after I've deployed the first parachutes. This is to reduce the risk of it causing damages later. However, the drag chutes and standard chutes that I deploy early are not enough to keep Orpheus directionally stable. It immediately started to tumble. So this has to change. Perhaps the boom will only be ejected after landing? Sounds risky, but with a few separator rockets...

 

Next, I crashed into the ocean surface of course, since I ran out of altitude. Nevertheless, I came closer to a landing transition than I would have guessed. Landing tests - and re-launch tests - will follow next. Those will just drop down from lower energies, not going out into space, no complete re-entry.

 

Edited June 20, 2016 by Vermil

[AeroAviation]

nothing big or spectacular but I have put my Eve surface probe into LKO to wait for the next transfer window (you can see the payload launcher in the background with the orange fuel tank) Also I used mechjeb for the ascent guidance as the current launcher I use cuts it very close to reaching a 100k circular orbit (I had about 15 m/s of delta v left but now I have about 4500 m/s to get to Eve)nk)

[TrooperCooper]

 

The United Nations have launched their Odysseus flight, a low-budget mission to perform a gravity assist based round-trip to Venus and Mars and a return to Earth in under two years. Click here to see more.

Edited June 20, 2016 by TrooperCooper

[MaxwellsDemon]

Landed on the Mun for the first time in my 1.1.2 campaign.

(I tested the Munar lander on Kerbin, taking it for a short hop to see how the landing legs behaved, and then deliberately running into the landing legs on EVA.   No kerblams or other problems were apparent.)

[Puggonaut]

If  your easily disturbed , don't watch this

Coz Today I did this..........

 

[LordFerret]

This morning I spent 6 tries attempting to modify one of my ships in the VAB ... 6 times the game crashed when removing a part during the modification process. The 7th try was the success.

It appears the causes of the crashes were: After removing the S1 SRBs, I needed to remove the struts I had placed to anchor the top of the S1 SRBs first (the struts went from a central Rockomax 64 tank to the S1 SRBs) before attempting to remove the TT-70 Radial Decouplers. Why? I have no clue. I've not tried to duplicate it, I've already wasted enough time on it.

Edited June 20, 2016 by LordFerret

[purpleivan]

7 hours ago, Vermil said:

Jeez, I'm overrun by this thread. I have about +40 pages to read. I surfed this thread a few days back, but started hundreds of pages back. Didn't go so far.

- Anyway: I've felt a bit overwhelmed by the challenge of Eve for some time, which is why developments and testing is rather occasional and slow. And I have so many other plans for 'fun' things I intend to do, on Mun, Duna, moons - there you go, proof that I don't consider Eve 'fun' anymore - that will be scheduled ahead of any manned Eve expedition anyway. Finally, I have downloaded some mods. Yes, Vermil's dependence on stock parts is coming to an end. It's not much, just Necrobone's SpaceY 5m and 7.5m parts, and some command pods, because those are the things I've been annoyed at missing.
Still, I was going to do the major challenges with stock parts, wasn't I? So the mods aren't installed yet. Instead I've looked at where I stand with Eve. I had sort of lost faith with Orpheus, but why not continue some testing? Always learns something. I had an Orpheus in orbit since an earlier launch test. (Magma superlifter).

So: Re-entry test with Orpheus.

 

Slamming big vehicles into an atmosphere can be a lot of fun and a challenge too.

Something of mine from back in the days when you could throw anything at re-entry and it would survive, no heat shields required.

[Curveball Anders]

30 minutes ago, Puggonaut said:

If  your easily disturbed , don't watch this

Coz Today I did this..........

 

It's summer solstice on my half of the planet, so I can stand watching kerbal things happen to poor Frosty.

[moogoob]

Worked on building super-lightweight lander probes, this time my self-imposed challenge was 1. to use the Stayputnik and 2. to make it all monopropellant driven. Most importantly, I had an idea to do it simply and without any reaction wheels. My propulsion is a single place-anywhere at 100% thrust, attitude control is via a single 4-way block at 20% thrust at the top of the craft. Roll control is in theory a problem, but I didn't experience any issues in my attempt.

I'll see what else I can do with the concept!

 

[Roastduck]

Last night in my RSS/RP-0 save, I accidentally sent an early probe interplanetary. It was supposed to go into a highly-eccentric polar orbit, get space-high science, then live out its life as a communication satellite. At the very last moment of the burn, it hit escape velocity, so I also managed to get science from space high over the sun!