What did you do in KSP1 today?

[eddiew]

Homecoming for the crew of the Dunaworrybehappy!

With the fuel cache on a 45 degree inclination, careful adjustments were needed during ascent to stay on course. Must have gotten lucky first time round, because this time the lander really did want to roll and fly backwards, making matching planes a bit of a chore. Fortunately it was packed with a full km/s above the typical ascent requirements, so the final orbital adjustments were well within tolerance. With the overspecced transfer stage finally empty, it was detached and the orbit brought down to the equator for an easy trip home. Which turned out to be a very easy trip, needing only 660m/s on the ejection, and capturing around Rald (which had mysteriously migrated outwards in its orbit since last visit) for 500. Now empty, the cache can was left in Rald orbit 'just in case'. Maybe it can become a give-and-take fuel pod for future missions.

The mission yielded so much data that Skyball Station couldn't handle it all, so they're going to have to spend some time there while the scientists do their crunching. Happily they're delivering at 25 science per day, so this may not take too long.

-- additional --

Had a brief moment of worry as the science was processed and my tech tree started to look like this:

 (Community Tech Tree + Hide Empty Nodes)

...but then counted it up and realised I still need 39,000 science points to unlock everything. Plus I have Kerbal Research and Development installed, so I can spend unlimited amounts making incremental improvements to things. Which I did a bit of, so now my nervas have 880 ISP and my rapiers have 10% more thrust. On the whole, I am now not concerned about accidentally finishing the tree too soon because geebus this thing is loaded towards the back end! I think I could send probes to everywhere in OPM and Kerbol Plus and still not unlock that warp drive   

So the question now is do I drop onto Duna for another science farm (~2500) or set my sights on more exotic destinations?

Edited August 25, 2016 by eddiew

[Maverick_aus]

Wrote up the next part of my Elcano challenge mission log - this time going for something more narrativ-y and charactery...
The story is building...I have something big planned around the corner. 

[LN400]

FINALLY... got the Mun double scan satelite sent off to Minmus after 15 days mapping the surface, docked the fuel depot to one of the Mun space stations that is off to Minmus next where it will meet up with another fuel depot to become a permanent orbital lab/base there. The Mun depot is going to 20km orbit where it will be the permanent Mun fuel station.

[nascarlaser1]

Mike Kerman, the lone survivor of the disaster known as Space Taxi 1, took a new WIP rover I'm working on to the memorial at the crash site.

http://imgur.com/a/ukLbz

[septemberWaves]

Well, yesterday I finished a couple of missions for my thread in mission reports, only to discover today that imgur is now so broken that I can't even upload them properly and am now unable to show off my missions.

Today I began to create vehicles for my Extended Kerbol Grand Tour. The two HAAVs (Heavy Atmospheric Ascent Vehicles) are complete, which is the difficult part completed (I thought I only needed one HAAV but I underestimated how difficult it would be to get into a prograde orbit of Richell). Also, one of those was an Eve ascent vehicle in less than 35 tonnes, which is a personal best (though it can take fewer kerbals than my usual HAAVs for Eve).

[eddiew]

Followed up the excitement of my first Duna expedition with... a minibus run. Woo! Yeah! Thrill me!

...well, it was quite thrilling at landing, anyway, since I the engineering team totally failed to test the handling properly and as a result delivered a spaceplane that can't manoeuvre without its engines being lit! Fortunately fuel was in surplus and Jay Kerman was able to circle round and land on the runway from the other end.

My the engineers' design mistakes aside, a very real victory for Kerbal R&D! Sinking something like 2500 science points (custom config, defaults are cheaper) into incremental improvements resulted in rapiers with 20% more thrust, nervas with 20% better efficiency and weighing only 2.1t, and cockpits and crew cabins with additional heat tolerance and 10% mass reductions. All combined, this resulted in a light (32 tons wet) spaceplane with a runway TWR of 0.72, rising very quickly to 1. A small amount of oxidiser allowed the rapiers to kick into rocket mode for a few seconds, securing an apoapsis of 60km, which the nerva (with an ISP of 960 above 20km) was able to push out of the atmosphere. Overall, the ascent went like the golden days of 0.90, and indeed the crew arrived in LKO with a startlingly large amount of delta-v remaining. Back in the day, I'd have sent them to land on Minmus - but Minmus is now a sub-moon of Rald, and it was to Rald that I wanted to go. Fortunately, it's where Minmus used to be.

Collecting the crew was almost smooth. The engineers I had balanced out the RCS almost perfected with the dCoM, and there was very little drift even while translating 'vertically'. The manoeuvre did uncover a design flaw in Skyball Station however, since the solar panels were within inches of the Firebird's cabin when the docking ports finally clamped together. In future, small pods like the Dunaworrybehappy will use these radial ports, while the ends will be reserved for spaceplaines.

Even after the return burn and AP reduction, the Firebird still had a full km/s in the tank - which turned out to be a very good thing indeed, since that was the only way it could turn around and get out of its dive. Canards are clearly needed for the next revision. Probably expensive canards that will need some KR&D investment to allow them to handle re-entry...

Up side; the entire crew of the Dunaworrybehappy received 4-star promotions upon their belated return to the ground. Which is good because there is... something rather interesting around Jool that needs the attention of a seasoned and steady team.

Down side; everyone on Skyball is a scientist. I forgot to leave a pilot to bring the Dunaworrybehappy back to Kerbin once the science has finally been leeched. Nuts.

[GwynJHawke]

Launched two fuel stations, one in LKO and another in low Munar orbit. Had the good fortune in using them both while mining the Mun for science. Landed in multiple equatorial biomes, refueling my Heavy Munar Lander. The HML has a skipper engine as its main source of thrust. Its the largest multi visit lander I've ever used, and the extra power and fue was quite handy.  Some foolish person tried to land in the farside canyon while in the dark and with no lights. Miraculously, I found a suitable landing site. After that was done, I pit stopped at the 600K orbital research lab and dropped off the data. The scientists there turned all I had into 5000 units of science. This let me unlock the majority of my tech tree and start the major process of my major Duna Project, The Corps of Discovery.  More news on that project tomorrow. 

[Maverick_aus]

Got around to posting my F-111 analogue. Includes working fuel dump and burner, swing-wings, bomb bay doors, and RAAF roundel. 



Details at WIP thread over here:
Album here: http://imgur.com/a/hEf7P

[Kertech]

6 hours ago, eloquentJane said:

Well, yesterday I finished a couple of missions for my thread in mission reports, only to discover today that imgur is now so broken that I can't even upload them properly and am now unable to show off my missions.

Today I began to create vehicles for my Extended Kerbol Grand Tour. The two HAAVs (Heavy Atmospheric Ascent Vehicles) are complete, which is the difficult part completed (I thought I only needed one HAAV but I underestimated how difficult it would be to get into a prograde orbit of Richell). Also, one of those was an Eve ascent vehicle in less than 35 tonnes, which is a personal best (though it can take fewer kerbals than my usual HAAVs for Eve).

You have to use the imbed (think it's bottom right option) the one which has .jpg at the end, then delete the stuff before http at the beginning and delete the stuff after .jpg at the end. It's a massive pain if you're trying to post more than one image and I'm sure there must be an easier way!

[Leopard]

Station K1 is now in LKO, one part very basic station launched using my mun lifter rocket. First two attempts to dock failed but third and forth worked.

5th mun lander flew, different mission profile with the whole thing meeting Val in orbit as a rescue (first non fatal EVA ever) then the assent stage flying home with Val safely rescued. Small step maybe but epic for me. Remaining descent stage managed to land even somewhat unbalanced.

only two goofs, forgot the science Val had collected and 5 landed in the Midlands, again, so minimal science gained but a successful primary objective of a rescue.

onwards with minmus 3 and mun 6 later hopefully. Now all manned vehicles will include a docking ring for rescue ops (was still locked when Val in 4 left).

also now know that while sticking a probe on an outriding fuel tank works controlling the result is imprecise at best. 5 was lucky to land...

[septemberWaves]

4 hours ago, Kertech said:

You have to use the imbed (think it's bottom right option) the one which has .jpg at the end, then delete the stuff before http at the beginning and delete the stuff after .jpg at the end. It's a massive pain if you're trying to post more than one image and I'm sure there must be an easier way!

The embed function isn't the problem; if that was the issue then I'd simply post links to the relevant imgur albums. But the problem is imgur itself. If I'm trying to create an album, it does things like randomly reordering the images, and adding duplicates of some of the images within the same album (at random intervals so it's even more difficult to figure out how to put the album together). I don't know what's happened to the site but it's beyond the point where it's usable. After spending several hours trying and failing to organise an album of about 100 images (I don't even know exactly how many there were supposed to be because I'm pretty sure that number includes random duplicates) I have completely given up on using the site in its current state.

[MaxwellsDemon]

Jeb and the Horus 24 crew finished their investigation of a mysterious unknown artifact, possibly a spacecraft, in the Munar Highlands and returned home.

I spent some time in the VAB converting a Horus vessel for a planned asteroid rendezvous mission-- first kerballed mission out of Kerbin's SOI (in this campaign, anyway).   Jeb and Val are in competition for the command slot, but as Jeb just returned from the Mun, it looks like Val has the upper hand.

[Curveball Anders]

Spent last evening reading the source to @Mythos KML Reader so I don't have to write code that was already written.

Trying to connect Kerbals to their contracts.

So I actually didn't even start KSP last night, just reading code related to KSP

 

[steve_v]

Installed 1.1.3 in hope random crashing fixed. CTD on second launch of new career. Uninstalled again. Back to playing X3.

Edited August 26, 2016 by steve_v

[septemberWaves]

I started a career game with Kerbalism. It really complicates things, to say the least. However, I like the semi-realism it provides, and it will be an interesting experience designing crewed missions to explore the Kerbol system.

[TheEpicSquared]

Got some screenshots for my KSP Megastructures mission report.

[Curveball Anders]

200 days to Duna.

Mothership with 6000 dV in orbit around Kerbin, Duna and Ike landers designed and tested.

Various rescue and gawker missions completed to make sure that my space program has ridiculous amounts of cash.

Pondering retiring and bringing home my science stations/outposts since I've maxed out the level of science I bother about (I don't do aircraft in KSP, I prefer proper flightsims for that).

(And a bit of coding and reading more source).

[Freshmeat]

So I overwarped and passed the Mun by accident, but Minmus was within acceptable dV. I run TAC-LS, but always bring a lot of extra supplies. Still, given that the trip to Minmus can be two weeks, I knew that everything had to go right. The lander decouples from a high, inclined, excentric orbit to save fuel on the CSM, And Bob and Bill launch the surface experiment pack (brilliant mod) for approx 600 additional science points. Return to orbit. IVA docking with a bit of anxiety, as supplies where low for the home run. Still flying backwards to use main thruster to decelerate. Then I see a flash of fire, and the thruster becomes irresponsive, while the CSM is tumbling away. Quick check on Vessel View, but I have to go to external view to be absolutely sure: The collision has knocked off the engine. While checking the damage, the CSM has moved just shy of a kilometer away.

Luckily, I had packed  a lot of monoprop, as the original mission profile included a Mun rescuee. Trusting the RCS system, I manage to get the lander back on course, and shortly after dock with the CSM for a full transfer of science and all the resources the CSM can hold. Then I dive into a 21 km PE of Kerbin in one go, praying that the ablator will hold out, as I cannot do a gradual transfer due to supplies being rather low. A nailbiting ride later I can recover Bill and Bob.

The extra bonus is that the lander is now a probe and it happens that I have a Minmus satellite contract, requiring a materials bay! So after some more RCS nudging, the contract is fulfilled with a net balance of 38326 funds, claiming it the yet most unlikely success of my current space program.

[eddiew]

First kerbals around Jool!

Discovery One is a marvel of kerbal technology. Heavy investment in KRnD resulted in nervas capable of pushing 100kN at 1000isp. Combine with materials technologies yielding lighter command pods, the Discovery delivers a gigantic 11km/s at a not-horrible 0.3 TWR. For orbital ejection, two drop tanks with aerospikes are used to provide a little extra kick, but after that, the ship becomes a true all-in-one interplanetary cruiser. Equipped with the latest science toys, and enough docking ports to add boosters or landers, it should see service for some time into the future.

Warning; the next report is a massive spoiler for Anomaly Surveyor. Don't open it if you don't (want to) know what's around Jool.

Spoiler

...I did not expect that... I hope he finds his way home :/ 

 

[ludan02]

No screenshots today, sadly  

But I finally landed my SSTO Capricorn at an alternative landing site! Using Kerbinside, I landed Capricorn at the Lushlands airstrip after it deployed a small probe bound for Duna. I also made a rendition of an Airbus A319 last night, and I'm super proud of it.

[DaMachinator]

Made and landed my first SSTO! I had to ditch it in the ocean after overshooting the reentry and running out of fuel. Carries 6 kerbals to a 90x90 orbit.

The first attempt made it to orbit but could not maintain the correct reentry profile without RCS.

Spoiler

The second attempt had RCS, but overshot KSP and ran out of fuel. I had to ditch it in the ocean with severe damage to the airframe.

Spoiler

 

[JadeOfMaar]

1 hour ago, Freshmeat said:

So I overwarped and passed the Mun by accident, but Minmus was within acceptable dV. I run TAC-LS, but always bring a lot of extra supplies. Still, given that the trip to Minmus can be two weeks, I knew that everything had to go right. The lander decouples from a high, inclined, excentric orbit to save fuel on the CSM, And Bob and Bill launch the surface experiment pack (brilliant mod) for approx 600 additional science points. Return to orbit. IVA docking with a bit of anxiety, as supplies where low for the home run. Still flying backwards to use main thruster to decelerate. Then I see a flash of fire, and the thruster becomes irresponsive, while the CSM is tumbling away. Quick check on Vessel View, but I have to go to external view to be absolutely sure: The collision has knocked off the engine. While checking the damage, the CSM has moved just shy of a kilometer away.

Luckily, I had packed  a lot of monoprop, as the original mission profile included a Mun rescuee. Trusting the RCS system, I manage to get the lander back on course, and shortly after dock with the CSM for a full transfer of science and all the resources the CSM can hold. Then I dive into a 21 km PE of Kerbin in one go, praying that the ablator will hold out, as I cannot do a gradual transfer due to supplies being rather low. A nailbiting ride later I can recover Bill and Bob.

The extra bonus is that the lander is now a probe and it happens that I have a Minmus satellite contract, requiring a materials bay! So after some more RCS nudging, the contract is fulfilled with a net balance of 38326 funds, claiming it the yet most unlikely success of my current space program.

Woahhhhh. That was really epic.

Earlier today I revisited an abandoned orbital station design (which kinda resembles Deep Space Nine) in VAB and after some testing, decided that maybe it would be better launched from an EL base on a moon. And I designed another station which intends to be lighter and more aerodynamically sound, and contain primarily NearFuture Modular Octogirder things. Both designs now seem quite bound for success, and I know exactly what to do with both of them.

[Galileo]

3 hours ago, Freshmeat said:

So I overwarped and passed the Mun by accident, but Minmus was within acceptable dV. I run TAC-LS, but always bring a lot of extra supplies. Still, given that the trip to Minmus can be two weeks, I knew that everything had to go right. The lander decouples from a high, inclined, excentric orbit to save fuel on the CSM, And Bob and Bill launch the surface experiment pack (brilliant mod) for approx 600 additional science points. Return to orbit. IVA docking with a bit of anxiety, as supplies where low for the home run. Still flying backwards to use main thruster to decelerate. Then I see a flash of fire, and the thruster becomes irresponsive, while the CSM is tumbling away. Quick check on Vessel View, but I have to go to external view to be absolutely sure: The collision has knocked off the engine. While checking the damage, the CSM has moved just shy of a kilometer away.

Luckily, I had packed  a lot of monoprop, as the original mission profile included a Mun rescuee. Trusting the RCS system, I manage to get the lander back on course, and shortly after dock with the CSM for a full transfer of science and all the resources the CSM can hold. Then I dive into a 21 km PE of Kerbin in one go, praying that the ablator will hold out, as I cannot do a gradual transfer due to supplies being rather low. A nailbiting ride later I can recover Bill and Bob.

The extra bonus is that the lander is now a probe and it happens that I have a Minmus satellite contract, requiring a materials bay! So after some more RCS nudging, the contract is fulfilled with a net balance of 38326 funds, claiming it the yet most unlikely success of my current space program.

I didn't need a single picture for that. If you were to replace each ksp word with its real worl counterpart, I would have a hard time knowing if this was fiction or a NASA mission gone wrong in the 1970s on one of their trips to the moon.

[Red Shirt]

Is it a Minmus Monolith or a tombstone? Yes. Yes it is.

Waiting for 1.2 to drop, I decided why not grab a few anomalies. Minmus is easy they say. Go to Minmus they say. Jeb, Bill, and Bob climbed into the Apolloesque craft. The flight was flawless. The landing not so much. Minmus is a low gravity snowcone so landing in the dark sounded easy. Trouble is I forgot lights and the incline is far steeper than I recall.

In this daylight pic you can see SAS is keeping it upright but upon landing one micro landing leg exploded taking the landing stage engine with it. Fortunately the return stage engines were unaffected. 

Jeb EVA'd to flag the monolith. Things went further wrong from there. Jeb kind of disintegrated due to something wonky on Minmus. He couldn't run. The ship was 666m from the monolith (seriously - should have been a clue). Bored with slooow walking, the jetpack proved to be a deadly idea. Bob later collected some dust samples he believed to be Jeb and left them at the monolith.

After the long walk back to the ship, the ladder gave him fits. Bob couldn't climb to the top. It's Minmus so a simple jump and he was onboard. On liftoff there was a weird pitch oscillation. Weird same ship operates perfectly on Mun. Then I couldn't select the command pod docking port as target. Had to just keep moving the mouse around the front of the ship until it eventually highlighted. Anyway, Bob was running on mono vapors when he finally docked with the command pod.

Respawn in peace Jeb

3 hours ago, eddiew said:

First kerbals around Jool!

I love the ship design. Part mods?

[LN400]

I watched my deorbiting SSTO lifter fall like a paralyzed parakeet chained to an anvil, after kOS decided it didn't want to deploy the parachutes after all.

EDIT:

2nd attempt successful. Landed (barely due to a 3.5* slope) and got a nice refund. Reminder to self: Delete the boot script in kOS once it has done its bit.

 

Edited August 26, 2016 by LN400