What did you do in KSP1 today?

[Ty Tan Tu]

Burning Man is in orbit. It is part of an ambiguous plan to establish a permanent base on Duna. It will transport 12 of my stupidest Kerbils to the Planet. Because, let's face it, you would have to be stupid to sign on for this mission.

[magnemoe]

1 hour ago, Corona688 said:

Drag losses may not be important efficiency-wise, but they're very important for keeping the correct end pointed towards space.

It also depend a bit on your rocket design, 

Standardbases takes 1km/s loss, an combination of drag and gravity losses to avoid drag and burning up. 
yes its ugly however base has shown itself as very versatile and robust so I use it everywhere, Duna, Val Moho SSTO is nice. The one where arms was added in orbit is currently breaking up on Mun and will be replaced by one of this. 
It also has an interesting launch profile in two ways, I launch it with mechjeb and gravity turn shape set to 60, after booster and core burn out I go manual and burn a lot radial to keep Ap at 80 km and ahead of me while gaining orbital speed. 
Usualy no real circulation burn just an setup with mothership or tanker. 
 

[Ty Tan Tu]

3 hours ago, Bogen said:

Took my new Space Jeep out for a spin.

Mission was to pick up a dead probe and bring it back to my LKO station for refueling.

I keeping looking at the EAS-1 External Command Seat and figure out how to use it. This gives me a lot of ideas.

[Astrofox]

Well, today I landed on Minmus, then landed on the Mun, ran out of fuel and Val had to push. I also flew a plane to drop off a very small base at the northern ice cap. Oh, and messed around with a P-38 I built using stock parts.

Well, today was also my last day playing KSP until I'm off for winter break. School starts tomorrow, and I won't really have much time for KSP in my schedule .

Oh well, see you all 'round sometime!

[CatastrophicFailure]

Had a few minutes and flarped about with a prototype for a Ceriman gunship... because reasons! 

Just like I wanted... durable, maneuverable, and oh so unstable....

 

 

Edited August 8, 2016 by CatastrophicFailure

[Corona688]

Two technicians and four mun-tourists have arrived at Station C (via the pronged craft above.) for complimentary crackers.  They now await their transfer/lander craft.

That is by far the smoothest docking I've ever done.  Finally getting the hang of it, I hope.

[Fearless Son]

On Saturday, I did a couple of missions.  First one was to establish a space station in Munar orbit capable of accommodating five Kerbals, generating power, and with an antenna.  I was not prepared to build a station there yet (I have not unlocked the parts I want for stations) but all the other requirements could be completed easily enough with a single ship.  

So, trying something a little different, I launched this shuttle: 

Obviously it has bigger boosters than that to get to orbit, but that was taken as it completed its circularization burn on its transfer stage.  The design proved sufficient to orbit the Mun and return, though I had to use most of the fuel in the shuttle's tanks to do so.  

Still, the shuttle had plenty of liquid fuel left for its landing needs, as it only uses a couple of small engines with a dedicated liquid fuel reserve sufficient to keep them going a good while.  I did not want to risk flying all the way back to KSC (I overestimated the number of aerobreaking passes this thing would make before its return becomes terminal) so I brought it to a nice grassy touchdown:

My second mission of the evening was a simple "Plant flag on Mun" mission.  Not much on its own, but I still had a few biomes I could tap for science as long as I was headed there anyway.  Hence, I went to the north pole, which is a difficult landing site.  Still, my lander proved it could handle it easily enough, even if the tip of the thing does "wobble" a bit too much under thrust:  

The wide landing fins in this design makes it easy to stay upright, even with the excessive tallness of the lander.  The crew modules have a separate return stage, taking off and abandoning the landing fins, larger engine, near-empty fuel tanks, and science equipment at the landing site and returning the crew with dead weight.  So long as I can collect the science and return it to the cockpit, it works pretty well.  

Edited August 8, 2016 by Fearless Son

[Tyko]

12 hours ago, Corona688 said:

Two technicians and four mun-tourists have arrived at Station C (via the pronged craft above.) for complimentary crackers.  They now await their transfer/lander craft.

That is by far the smoothest docking I've ever done.  Finally getting the hang of it, I hope.

Congrats! The first day I really nailed docking I ran tourist missions for the rest of the day just to give me excuses to dock more...Which tools / techniques did you settle on? Are you using Stock and navball or one of the mods?

[Diche Bach]

On 8/6/2016 at 11:18 PM, MiniMatt said:

Today I decided that drag is merely a symptom of insufficient boosters and the theory of aerodynamic efficiency a hoax perpetrated by "big fairing" to con us all into buying their overpriced pointy bits of metal. As such, I launched a barn door - cunningly disguised as a Minmus mining base - in one shot and landed it on the mint green moon.

 

That was awesome MiniMatt. You really seem to know what you are doing

I've got that USI Kolonization mod in my set and not quite to the point of using that stuff, though I do almost have the KSS up with some of the USI gear on it (food and recycler).

Question: what screen res do you play at? Your screen looks so nice and open and clear and the NavBall seems far less intrusive than in my setup. Think I might follow your act and configure my KER windows to be HUDs instead of using the big-butt things in the middle of the window.

[be77solo]

3 hours ago, Fearless Son said:

On Saturday, I did a couple of missions.  First one was to establish a space station in Munar orbit capable of accommodating five Kerbals, generating power, and with an antenna.  I was not prepared to build a station there yet (I have not unlocked the parts I want for stations) but all the other requirements could be completed easily enough with a single ship.  

So, trying something a little different, I launched this shuttle: 

 

Obviously it has bigger boosters than that to get to orbit, but that was taken as it completed its circularization burn on its transfer stage.  The design proved sufficient to orbit the Mun and return, though I had to use most of the fuel in the shuttle's tanks to do so.  

Still, the shuttle had plenty of liquid fuel left for its landing needs, as it only uses a couple of small engines with a dedicated liquid fuel reserve sufficient to keep them going a good while.  I did not want to risk flying all the way back to KSC (I overestimated the number of aerobreaking passes this thing would make before its return becomes terminal) so I brought it to a nice grassy touchdown:

 

Great little shuttle design, I love it!  Trying to see, what engines are those on the shuttle itself?

Thanks!

[MiniMatt]

3 minutes ago, Diche Bach said:

Question: what screen res do you play at? Your screen looks so nice and open and clear and the NavBall seems far less intrusive than in my setup. Think I might follow your act and configure my KER windows to be HUDs instead of using the big-butt things in the middle of the window.

Just 1080p - I know there's a UI scale option under general settings but I don't think I've tinkered with that (back when it was introduced it fuzzed up screen fonts somewhat, this may have been fixed). There are also individual screen element settings options when in flight (escape, settings, flightUI elements)

[Diche Bach]

Yeah, I think I might have upped my UI a notch or two, and that might well be my problem (middle-aged eyes).

[Garrett Kerman]

I created the most overated mun orbiter. It had enough fuel to get to  Duna and back but I somehow managed to use it all orbiting the mun and back. I got 500 science though so it's it wasn't TOO much of a waste ; )

Edited August 8, 2016 by Garrett Kramme

[Corona688]

3 hours ago, tjt said:

Congrats! The first day I really nailed docking I ran tourist missions for the rest of the day just to give me excuses to dock more...Which tools / techniques did you settle on? Are you using Stock and navball or one of the mods?

I hope my amusement with this question causes Squad to improve KSP's docking screen to the point it actually gets mentioned in a conversation about docking   Fortunately people get by quite well without it.

I use the stock navball, and keep things simple for myself by keeping all my stations oriented north-south.  This makes the horizon and angle markers actually slightly useful.

My rules for docking and intercepts  -- all homegrown hayseed nonsense -- are as follows:

• When you're headed directly for a target, the prograde reticle will be inside the target reticle.  (duh.)
• When you're headed directly away from a target, the retrograde reticle will be inside the target reticle.  (also duh.)
• The prograde reticle gets "sucked towards" forward thrust, the retrograde reticle gets "pushed away" from forward thrust.
  • When zeroing a high velocity intercept, you want to slowly "push" the retrograde reticle into the center of the anti-target reticle bu thrusting close to but not quite retrograde.  If you do this carefully -- watch the ETA to intercept in the map screen and keep it some dozens of seconds in the future -- you can get a really close encounter without further corrections.
    • Worryingly close, even.  Do not live solely in the map screen.
  • 3 m/s is good enough for an encounter.  From there you can make fine adjustments in the space view when intercept happens.
• The target reticles can be moved around, once you're really close.
  • The prograde reticle "pushes" the target reticle, the retrograde reticle "pulls" it.
• Line up the angles you intend to be at before you dock, and push around the target reticle to a roughly close match.
• Be bold -- tiny, slow movements will drift off course in the minutes they take to arrive.  This is because neither you nor your target are flying in straight lines.
• 1-3 m/s is a good speed to approach at if you can slow down in time once meters get into the single digits.
• Don't be stupid.  Don't watch the navball exclusively, you'll hit something.
• When you're really really REALLY close, the cockpit view can be useful, since you can zoom in and basically fullscreen the cockpit navball.

Edited August 8, 2016 by Corona688

[Tyko]

37 minutes ago, Corona688 said:

I hope my amusement with this question causes Squad to improve KSP's docking screen to the point it actually gets mentioned in a conversation about docking   Fortunately people get by quite well without it.

I use the stock navball, and keep things simple for myself by keeping all my stations oriented north-south.  This makes the horizon and angle markers actually slightly useful.

My rules for docking and intercepts  -- all homegrown hayseed nonsense -- are as follows:

• When you're headed directly for a target, the prograde reticle will be inside the target reticle.  (duh.)
• When you're headed directly away from a target, the retrograde reticle will be inside the target reticle.  (also duh.)
• The prograde reticle gets "sucked towards" forward thrust, the retrograde reticle gets "pushed away" from forward thrust.
  • When zeroing a high velocity intercept, you want to slowly "push" the retrograde reticle into the center of the anti-target reticle bu thrusting close to but not quite retrograde.  If you do this carefully -- watch the ETA to intercept in the map screen and keep it some dozens of seconds in the future -- you can get a really close encounter without further corrections.
    • Worryingly close, even.  Do not live solely in the map screen.
  • 3 m/s is good enough for an encounter.  From there you can make fine adjustments in the space view when intercept happens.
• The target reticles can be moved around, once you're really close.
  • The prograde reticle "pushes" the target reticle, the retrograde reticle "pulls" it.
• Line up the angles you intend to be at before you dock, and push around the target reticle to a roughly close match.
• Be bold -- tiny, slow movements will drift off course in the minutes they take to arrive.  This is because neither you nor your target are flying in straight lines.
• 1-3 m/s is a good speed to approach at if you can slow down in time once meters get into the single digits.
• Don't be stupid.  Don't watch the navball exclusively, you'll hit something.
• When you're really really REALLY close, the cockpit view can be useful, since you can zoom in and basically fullscreen the cockpit navball.

yep, I use a very similar approach for getting accurate rendezvous then switch to NavyFish's Docking Port Alignment Indicator for the last 100 meters. The navball-only method for getting close doesn't really account for the plane of the docking port though. You can be coming in at a 90 degree angle to the plane of the docking port and still have your prograde and target indicators in perfect alignment 

[Corona688]

Yep, that's why I keep stations at a fixed orientation, to mostly remove that variable from the equation.  A bit of eyeballing is still needed to get yourself above / below the station as appropriate, but from there you can navball it.

[Fearless Son]

6 hours ago, be77solo said:

Great little shuttle design, I love it!  Trying to see, what engines are those on the shuttle itself?

Thanks!

A pair of Junos on some mk. 0 liquid fuel tanks, pressed into the mk2. fuselage to give them attachment points astride the docking port.  My initial design called for a couple of Spark engines for vacuum maneuvering, but those proved to be too weak and fuel-hungry for atmospheric flight and they were redundant for vacuum flight with the transfer stage there.  So I elected to go with the air-breathers instead because they gave me a lot more control and options for making a safe landing than a gliding descent would allow.  

[Lich180]

Started planning a mission to Duna. First time out of the Kerbin area. Been to Mun and Minun so far, so I'm hoping this goes nicely.

Playing in Career mode as well, for extra Fun.

Edit: save corruption Kraken has hit.

Edited August 9, 2016 by Lich180

[septemberWaves]

@Lich180 good luck with your Duna mission. It's an easy destination, but can be pretty tough before you're used to interplanetary missions.

[MedwedianPresident]

I made a cinematic today:

 

 

[Corona688]

Tourii are thrilled to hear that their HORSE has arrived at Station C's lower gantry (Horizontal-Oriented Retrobraking Shuttle Engine)

It was sent up sans pilot for obvious reasons -- no parachute -- but so far I'm quite happy with its balance and performance main thruster wise and RCS wise.  Passengers will embark once it's refueled.

Edited August 9, 2016 by Corona688

[Dire_Squid]

Hmmm, what DIDN'T I do today?

Yesterday, I rescued Kerbals from orbit (two at a time, using a three-Kerbal skinny ship)... Today, I took tourists AND rescued Kerbals: two Tourists and one Kerbonaut, and then 6 Tourists (no big sweat), I did a flyby of Minmus AND got science from there AND the Mun (on the way back to Kerbin), did a Keosynchronous orbit with a location and a probe (didn't know it required a full orbit while to get the contract fulfilled)... Then, I FINALLY did an annoying "Haul 'Thumper' boosters into a 350,000-360,000 orbit" with a probe, because I was getting annoyed... OH, I also finally got the mobile lab (with mucho science), ready to make legit science... in orbit (and with all the recued Kerbals, I NEED to take a few out for some permanent orbit lab duties).

Edited August 9, 2016 by Dire_Squid

[Fearless Son]

Built my first successful VTOL craft.  Includes two Panther engines for lift and a couple of Juno's to provide additional forward thrust (toggled via action group.)

I use it for collecting science from those hard to reach places.  

[MedwedianPresident]

1 hour ago, Corona688 said:

Tourii are thrilled to hear that their HORSE has arrived at Station C's lower gantry (Horizontal-Oriented Retrobraking Shuttle Engine)

It was sent up sans pilot for obvious reasons -- no parachute -- but so far I'm quite happy with its balance and performance main thruster wise and RCS wise.  Passengers will embark once it's refueled.

Is is a horizontal moon lander?

[Randox]

Apparently I forgot which key is my screenshot key...so that's a thing.

Today I moved the landing gear on one of my small planes, and added a couple of air intakes to see if I could extend the altitude limit a bit, and apparently made it way less stable in the process. On the upside, it can now actually take off without driving off the end of the runway, which is nice because it was usually in a severe death wiggle by the time it got there (fishtailing about 30 degrees to each side very quickly, I don't know how it was surviving that). It might be time to send that one back to the drawing board.

 

I also reached Duna for what is I think the first time I've gone interplanetary since version 1.0+, so I'm pretty happy with that. The central stack from my original launch stage ran out of fuel at the exact moment I circularized around Duna, which was awesome timing. Not really equipped to actually do anything there, didn't even think to bring some probes or anything, so yeah, I guess I'm just going home. Still, it's nice to take that plunge again rather than just planning out the missions and spending so much time testing my designs that I get bored before the actual mission. On the other hand, more testing might have resulted in bringing probes, so it's really a 50/50 situation.

 

I am however massively enjoying the part where my standard heavy launch rocket has enough dV to carry itself and I think a 50 tonne payload not just into orbit, but all the way to Duna, and then insert into a 100km orbit once it gets there. I feel like I've been wasting its potential all this time. At the same time, I don't think it's enough for a Joolian mission, though I might just solve that by throwing fuel tanks into transfer orbits when that mission launches. There is a certain appeal in seeding all the Joolian moons with orbital gas stations.