What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Vermil]

...And Bob was right, of course.

 

Bilfal: "If we only could land on something, like a platform, and then make a second RCS-flight to the hatch or some ladder steps. It might be easier."

Tandan: "Yea, I had the same idea. The external fuel tanks don't look easy to land on and they're far away from the door, but maybe we could try?"

Mission Control (smacks his forehead): "- No! No, don't do that, but hold the thought. I think I can deliver. I'm stupid to not think of it before. - Jebediah, look behind you, at Bill's seat. There should be a lever marked 'Cargo Doors'. "

Bob: (smacks his forehead): "- Of course! Why didn't I think of that."

Sigrid: " What?"

Dr Horst: " Well, we don't fly the Lensman often, but when we designed it, we equipped it with a full set of science instruments. Internally. So in order to access them, the aft module can be fully opened. The passenger compartment is the standard, so it has a door to the outside too. It's facing the right way, so with cargo doors open you can board the rocket through the back door, so to speak."

Bilfal: "- Look at that. It's open. And there's a little ledge to land on. Looks easy enough."

 

And it was. All four stranded astronauts made it and boarded in the first attempt.

 

Jebediah: "So is everybody strapped in and comfortable back there?"

 

Tandan: "Everything is fine here. We're ready."

 

Jebediah: " Okay. Let's go home then."

 

Everything was almost routine from there on.  ...Almost. Only a slight glitch. Somehow the SAS got locked into just stabilizing instead of retrograde during re-entry. So Maybe that was why two modules and landing struts exploded? Well, since they landed in water it didn't matter.

 

A happy end. Now Mission Control need a rest.

 

[something]

Today, I visited a celestial body, which I had been ignoring for some time - apparently about 2 years in game: The Mun.

Landing there was routine, but I then realized something changed on the Mun which was odd..

 

Set the texture quality to the highest value possible and turned ground scatter back on. Must have skipped that option when migrating from 1.1.0 to 1.1.3...

[Tyko]

22 hours ago, CanOmer said:

Landed on 9 biomes of Minmus in one trip:

Did you use a lander? a rover? tell us more

[Fearless Son]

10 hours ago, Samszee said:

made my first ever landing, only to the mun, but am chuffed regardless. think my landing gear was a bit springy or i was useless as i kept landing and would just bounce back up on a tilt!

That is a big part of what makes the Mun surprisingly challenging for such an easy to reach body.  I am convinced the Mun's geology must consist entirely of rubber, broken down by various grades of elasticity and brittleness.  

I find the trick is to land somewhere extremely flat, to come down excessively straight, and to cut the throttle just before landing.  If you have some RCS onboard (as you might if you have a transition module you dock with) you can use a little of that with SAS to help correct the tilt.  But once your lander is relatively upright and not likely to bounce up any further, cut the SAS and RCS and let gravity settle it down.  

[PT]

14 hours ago, Pine said:

No idea what happened here. Saved the station by using the RCS and pushing it back into a sloppy orbit.

 

New Horizons suffers from Kerbin reparenting bug introduced in newest Kopernicus for KSP 1.1.3. Long story short, do not leave stuff in Kerbin orbit or go back to 1.1.2

Edited July 27, 2016 by PT

[CanOmer]

1 hour ago, tjt said:

Did you use a lander? a rover? tell us more

It was Mk1 Lander Can only vessel with 6 different science experiment modules. It has enough delta-V to travel all these biomes. Still there was more than 700m/s Delta-V when I return back to Kerbin. I used it for slowing down.

Route I followed (I used visible biomes map):

Edited July 27, 2016 by CanOmer

[Tyko]

Just now, CanOmer said:

It was Mk1 Lander Can only vessel. It has enough delta-V to travel all these biomes. Still there was more than 700m/s Delta-V when I return back to Kerbin. I used it for slowing down.

Route I followed (I used visible biomes map):

Nice work! Slowing down is always a good thing...don't want your precious science coming in a several kilometers/second

[GarrisonChisholm]

Last night my first probe arrived at Neidon, and with only ~120 m/sec on board for maneuvering it was a fly-by only.  I originally had a close 600km route planned, but on entering its SOI I played with numbers and found I could manage a fly-by of Thatmo.  I decided that was of higher investigative value, and so trimmed the sails.  Furthermore, since I only have one Materials Bay, why not dip slightly into Thatmo's thin atmosphere?  The gang back at mission control would love those readings, even if the trajectory crew started sweating in their seats; but a measly 400 meters couldn't hurt, right?

So, we approach the que-ball white gleam that is Thatmo, sending back high altitude science.  The approach continues, with- what's this?  Only 20 minutes to periapse?  My, but 4.5 km/sec really is cooking-along, eh?  So!  We approach, interface, Yea sci- wait it's red Heat Indicators <boom!>.

The probe rises back out of the atmosphere, its precious high altitude atmospheric science safely on board!  So, what exploded?  Why... ...only the, RTG.  ...and the antenna.  

So, the probe dutifully completes its programmed rotation (yes, I do this), coming out of occultation and pointing at Kerbin, ...never to be heard from again, its batteries slowly draining away to nothing as it heads towards interstellar space.  Alas!

 

[gilflo]

11 Kerbal tourists landed on Eve tonight at 11:00pm UTC time, on the shoreline. They were amazed by the sunset.
It's a "one shot" mission, fly to Eve and back without refueling, for so many people together, just to admire the explodium sea and the sunset
Story telling as soon as i get time..

[Grenartia]

KerbPaint's been updated, I take it?

 

[Srpadget]

A while back, I posted a few screenshots of what I've started calling The Great Duna Invasion Fleet.  Something like 16 separate craft all targeting Duna/Ike space in a single launch window.  They have arrived and made orbit.  All of them. Much to my surprise, I managed to pull it off!  I was allowing quicksave/quickload (just in case), but I never needed to quickload except to rectify a bug (one of my craft just *vanished* in deep interplanetary space).  So I'm feeling pretty good about this project.

Overview and High Duna Orbit:

I probably shouldn't have accepted TWO polar orbit contracts.  I only needed one (so I could piggyback a survey scanner on it, of course).

 

Low Duna Orbit:

Not all that impressive, really, but then, it's just the Duna Space Station pieces & parts, plus a reusable lander.

 

The real action is around Ike, especially low equatorial orbit:

Mind you, most of that isn't staying there.  Six (I think? I lose track...) of those orbit lines are a "Mining Outpost In A Box" (okay, several boxes) and will eventually all end up at one site on the surface.  Just as soon as I do some prospecting and decide on a good spot.  You know, with decent Ore concentration.  On flattish ground.  Near the equator.  Without high mountains directly to the west.  In a location where the albedo does not resemble charcoal.  (Yeah, right... I'll let you know how that turns out.  I may have to compromise some.  Probably in the category of "Ore concentration"....)

 

But it's not all infrastructure.  It's not really an interplanetary voyage unless you can send Mom a postcard:

HI MOM!

 

There was also an Ike landing.  Which was successful, broadly speaking.  But the crew forgot to take a photo, because the landing was ... "WAY COOL", was the phrase used in Jeb's mission report.  He also added the above "FLAT ground, I said FLAT, not BLACK" criteria for mining outpost site selection.  And added a recommendation that pilots less heroic than himself should maybe avoid landing right at dawn at a never-before-visited location.  But he notes as a bonus that the Ike lander design dust-surfs GREAT on a steep-enough slope.  He also assures Mission Control that Engineering back on Ike Orbital Station will be able to straighten out the landing legs with just a few hours' sledgehammer work, and then they'll retract again just like new. 

Edited July 28, 2016 by Srpadget
someday I will figure out this screenshot-posting business on the first try

[Randazzo]

Ran a Duna/Ike mission from start to finish with lots of time warp.

And my new wallpaper:

[Vermil]

6 hours ago, gilflo said:

11 Kerbal tourists landed on Eve tonight at 11:00pm UTC time, on the shoreline. They were amazed by the sunset.
It's a "one shot" mission, fly to Eve and back without refueling, for so many people together, just to admire the explodium sea and the sunset
Story telling as soon as i get time..

 

 

 

 

Holy *... !

How many parachutes is that? And does that mean you don't need rocket fuel for the landing?

And really?  Is that thing really going to reach orbit?  (I arrived at a much more massive lifter for my Orpheus project.  But then I fly by seat-of-the-pants)

 

[gilflo]

Only 54 Mk2 radial chutes and 6 MK16. Vertical landing speed is 8m/s. Landing weight is 253.5T, full of fuel. Pod is from LBSI: it's a Kappa Sigma V5 Explorer " voyager class" for 11 people.

Engines are all tweakable R25 Space shuttle main engines from Real scale Booster, and yes it will take off, join a 110km orbit and then leave to Kerbin and land to Kerbin.

Edited July 28, 2016 by gilflo

[CanOmer]

9 tourists will land on Minmus then enter Kerbol's orbit, then will land on Mun and will back to Kerbin.

If it success I will get huge amount of money.

 

to Minmus:

On the way back:

Mission is successful. I gained 1.5 million  !

(Difficulty is hard.)

Edited July 28, 2016 by CanOmer

[MaxwellsDemon]

The Horus 21 mission landed on the Mun in pursuit of an anomaly contract... that was aimed at an anomaly that an earlier contract had already had me land at.  (?)   Fulfilled the contract but still wanted to get some science data while I was on the Mun, so after determining that the Isis 21 lander did not have enough delta V to take off, find an unresearched site, land, and take off again, I took off, made a low-Munar-orbit rendezvous with Horus 21 to top off the lander's tanks, then landed in the East Farside Crater.  After another rendezvous, the crew returned to Kerbin, utilizing the Horus's backup monoprop engines when the LFO ran out.   (I eliminated those backup engines from my latest redesign, but after this I think I'll restore them.)  Contact was lost (i.e., the game crashed) when the crew was about to be recovered after splashdown, but another recovery attempt will be made today.

Edited July 28, 2016 by MaxwellsDemon
correction

[Curveball Anders]

Not what I did today, rather what I did the last week (I do have a life, and a garden).

Serendipitous Space Company was well on it's way, good cash flow, good science, just about time to hit for Duna.

Quick check and next good window for Duna is > 1y away ...

Well, I could time warp, but I could also pick up some cheap contracts, getting some extra cash (and science, since I've got 4 labs (Kerbin, Mün, Minmus and Minmus landed) running.

Hmm, a Kerbonaut stranded on the Mün, that's a quicky since I've got a robo-lander with two spare seat docked at Mün Station One.

Another one stuck in Minmus orbit, no probs, I have a lander/orbiter at Minmus Station One. (And two more in low Kerbin orbit, but saving them is routine).

5 tourists wanting various Mün and Minmus orbits/landings.

So I design a 7 seat tourist bus, launch and dock it at Mün Station One, move the two gawkers that wanted a Mün landing to the robolander, touch'n'go, shift 'em back to the bus and off towards Minmus.

Docking tourist bus at Minmus Station One I realise that I have a problem.

1. The Minmus lander attached to Minmus Station One isn't a robo lander, it's a two seater and needs a pilot.
2. I have 4 gawkers that wants to land on Minmus.

So either I do 4 trips down to Minmus and back, or I design, launch and dock a quad seat Minmus lander.

In RL my choice would have been to bite the bullet and grind on with 4 landings (I'm a civil servant after all, and wasting/risking public funds to save me from boring work would be bad.)

But since SSC has loads of fund, I decided that we needed a Quad Lander at Minmus Station.

Quick design, actually switched over the sandbox/simulation save to verify that it was a working Minmus Lander.

Back to the SSC save, and off to Minmus.

But it refuses to dock ...

I back out, MJ off, dock manually, no go. Trying axial docking port, no go.

Copying station and lander to sandbox, Hyperedit to similar orbits, no go.

Different lander orbits, station orbits, manual or MJ, no go.

Building exactly the same craft in sandbox, HE to orbit, no go.
 
Building a similar but not identical in sandbox, HE to orbit, go.

Copying the new design to the SSC save, launch, intercept and dock, go.

Then I took the gawkers down to Minmus, back to the station, fuel balance, shift people around so I get the right people back on the bus, kerbin orbit, dock with Kerbin Station, grab some stranded Kerbonauts that I've stashed at the station, balance fuel and back to Kerbin.

End result:

1. 7 contracts fulfilled with serious amounts of cash, science and rep.
2. Edging closer to the 'big day' when SSC can send a bag of crafts towards Duna and Ike.
3. A strange, unmanned and out of monoprop, quad lander in Minmus orbit that refuses to dock or be docked with.
4. A very happy Curveball who's had loads of fun, anger, confusion, pondering, math, bug tracking and success.

Oh, and obligatory WDYDIKSPT pic, The Quad robo lander that refuses to dock or be docked with.

[MagicFireCaster]

Maxde an intercontinental fly to try my rover transporting plane

 

 

[gilflo]

Here is the story of 11 Kerbal tourists landing on Eve

 

[AlmostNASA]

I Did this http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/144753-i-think-i-found-the-shuttles-space-worm-ufo/

[Vermil]

9 hours ago, gilflo said:

Engines are all tweakable R25 Space shuttle main engines from Real scale Booster, and yes it will take off, join a 110km orbit and then leave to Kerbin and land to Kerbin.

 

I've downloaded LBSI's pods but haven't used them sofar. They sure seem very nice though.

As for the rocket engines, I'm going to pass until or if I ever install RSS. They have a bit too good ISP for me. I wouldn't recognize my KSP.

 

[Kerbinchaser]

On July 1, 2016 at 1:15 PM, hellblazer said:

Installed the Z1 to the Unity module. It's a powerful command and control module which I forgot to disable before installing. Thought my Canadarm IR was all messed up but I discovered the reaction wheels don't like getting man handled. 

 

That's KSP? How did you do that!? Mods are magic!

[gh7531]

Today happend the biggest what moment during my over 600h of playtime...

A tourist mission to orbit Kerbin and return safely was scheduled for today. The crew were four tourists and the experienced Cmdr. Valentina as the pilot. It was a trivial flight on a well tested and reliable launcher so nobody but the tourists were realy exited. The launch was straight forward, pitching over after launch and insert into a stable equatorial orbit at about 80.000m. In Orbit Bilbe and Pacy were enjoing the view while Henhat and Dobert took pictures of the incredible sunset. Then after Pacy found out that Henhat ate all the snacks she informed Cmdr. Valentina about the situation and after a brief conversation with MissionControl it was decided that no kerbal should suffer the lack of snacks in space and so Cmdr. Valentina had to abort the mission and prepared a emergency reentry. After the reentryburn that insured that the capsule lands safely on land the tank and main engine of the SSTO were decoupled and drifted slowly away. The reentry locked pretty spectacular even from inside the PPD-10 and so Dobert took a few more pictures. After Cmdr. Valentina heard the parachutes open at a safe speed she leaned back into her seat and enjoyed the view of Kerbin growing as they fell towards the ground. And there for a second she thought she had seen a big orange cylindrical thing high high above but before she could see it clear the capsule rotated away and she forgot about it. After the parachutes opened completly and the craft was slowed down Bilbe leaned over toward the window and looked at the beautiful landscape of the Grasslands. She looked around and then she heard Doberts scream, and than she saw it. The big orange tank that carried them into the long awaited space, that was detached at 70.000m above the ground, at the edge of space, falling down towards them at a speed that made any evasive manouver impossible....

At T+ 00:18:20 MissionControl lost contact to the Ceres I mission.

At the time the rescue crew arrived at the landing site they saw only a lonly Mk I Command Pod and a very disturbed looking Cmdr. Valentina.

Edited July 30, 2016 by gh7531

[Kerbinchaser]

2 hours ago, gh7531 said:

Today happend the biggest what moment during my over 600h of playtime...

A tourist mission to orbit Kerbin and return safely was scheduled for today. The crew were four tourists and the experienced Cmdr. Valentina as the pilot. It was a trivial flight on a well tested and reliable launcher so nobody but the tourists were realy exited. The launch was straight forward, pitching over after launch and insert into a stable equatorial orbit at about 80.000m. In Orbit Bilbe and Pacy were enjoing the view while Henhat and Dobert took pictures of the incredible sunset. Then after Pacy found out that Henhat ate all the snacks she informed Cmdr. Valentina about the situation and after a brief conversation with MissionControl it was decided that no kerbal should suffer the lack of snacks in space and so Cmdr. Valentina had to abort the mission and prepared a emergency reentry. After the reentryburn that insured that the capsule lands safely on land the tank and main engine of the SSTO were decoupled and drifted slowly away. The reentry locked pretty spectacular even from inside the PPD-10 and so Dobert took a few more pictures. After Cmdr. Valentina heard the parachutes open at a safe speed she leaned back into her seat and enjoyed the view of Kerbin growing as they fell towards the ground. And there for a second she thought she had seen a big orange cylindrical thing high high above but before she could see it clear the capsule rotated away and she forgot about it. After the parachutes opened completly and the craft was slowed down Bilbe leaned over toward the window and looked at the beautiful landscape of the Grasslands. She looked around and then she heard Doberts scream, and than she saw it. The big orange tank that carried them into the long awaited space, that was detached at 70.000m above the ground, at the edge of space, falling down towards them at a speed that made any evasive manouver impossible....

At T+ 00:18:20 MissionControl lost contact to the Ceres I mission.

At the time the rescue crew arrived at the landing site they saw only a lonly Mk I Command Pod and a very disturbed looking Cmdr. Valentina.

So you had a debris accident?

[Guest]

Today I finally fixed a technical problem with KSP, and to celebrate, I reinstalled Kerbal Aircraft Expansion (KAX), as well as installing the Maritime pack and Kerbal Rotor Expansion (KRX). I then proceeded to build a VTOL and a helicopter that both flew and landed stably!  I managed to land the helicopter on the VAB helipad but not the VTOL   

Edited July 29, 2016 by Guest